Heraldic Societies and Newsgroups

National Societies within the United Kingdom

• The Heraldry Society – holds one lecture a month (except over the summer) – an excellent site
• The White Lion Society (founded 1986) is a society of friends for the College of Arms. Prior to its having its own web site, one of its members wrote a short description for C.U.H.&G.S.
• The Heraldry Society of Scotland (founded 1977) – another excellent site
• The Society of Heraldic Arts (formed 1987)
• The Harleian Society (established, 1869; incorporated, 1902) – engaged in "the transcribing, printing and publishing of the heraldic visitations of counties, parish registers or any manuscripts relating to genealogy, family history and heraldry"
• In addition, there are a number of historical societies in the U.K. – three of the best known are
  • Society of Antiquaries of London (inaugural meeting, 1707; Royal Charter, 1751)
    • Library
  • Society of Antiquaries of Scotland (founded, 1780; Royal Charter, 1783)
    • Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland
  • The Royal Historical Society (founded 1868)

Local Societies within the United Kingdom

• Norfolk Heraldry Society
• The Birmingham and Midland Society for Genealogy and Heraldry
• Lancashire Heraldry Group
• The Yorkshire Heraldry Society
• Chiltern Heraldry Group
• Middlesex Heraldry Society
• Somerset Heraldry Society

Heraldry Societies at Other Universities

• At present there appear to be none – certainly none with web pages.
  • The Oxford University Heraldry Society – much older than C.U.H.&G.S. – passed into one of its periods of suspended animation in the late 1980s or early 1990s. An attempt has recently been made to revive it and talks have taken place.
  • Our records show that an Edinburgh Heraldry Society was formed in 1961. Its fate is unknown.
If anyone knows any different, please e-mail us!

Societies within the Commonwealth

• Heraldry Australia
• The Royal Heraldry Society of Canada (with an extensive list of links) has several branches

Societies in Europe

• Scandinavian Heraldry Society (Societas Heraldica Scandinavica) – covers all five Nordic countries (viz Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden) and has pages in English and Danish
• Svenska Heraldiska Foreningen
• Suomen Heraldinen Seura (Heraldry Society of Finland) – with a directory of coats of arms – go to this page and choose the link"Porvarisvaakunat"
• Koninklijk Nederlandsch Genootschap voor Geslacht- en Wapenkunde
• In Belgium:
  • vzw Samenwerkingsverband Vlaamse Verenigingen voor Familiekunde
  • Association Royale Office Généalogique et Héraldique de Belgique
• The Russian College of Heraldry (Collegium Heraldicum Russiae) with version in English

Societies in the Americas

• The Armiger Society (as its name suggests, a society for armigers)
• The Augustan Society – an American-based "international genealogical, historical, heraldic and chivalric society" founded in 1957 – has an heraldic section

Societies in Asia

• Heraldry Research Institute

International

• The 27th International Congress of Genealogical and Heraldic Sciences held in 2006 at the University of St Andrews – a very interesting site to be examained in detail; for those with time for the pictures only though, these are recommended: the opening ceremony, the parade, the civic reception, the heralds, the exhibition, heraldic art and post-congress tour

Newsgroups

• rec.heraldry – has typically 20–30 messages per day
• Heraldry Forum
• Heraldry eGroup

Miscellaneous

• List of heraldry societies

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