SHULER ORIGINS

SHULER COAT OF ARMS
(Switzerland)

Authority: Rietstap's Armorial General, by J.B. Rietstap, Heraldic Authority, who compiled a complete registry of all names and arms recorded and granted to them, from the earliest to the present time from the colleges of arms, on the Continent, and some on the British Isles.
Rietstap's Heraldic Description of the Shuler Coat of Arms, P. 735. (In French Heraldic terms):

"Bale, St. Gall, D'azur a deux triangles vides dor, entrelaces en forme d'etoile, soutenue d'un tertre de trois coupeaux de sin."
Crest: Un homme iss., hab. d'azur, rebro. d'or, au rabat du meme, tenant une hache de boucher d'arg., en pal. L. d'or et d'azur
Translation: This heraldic description is written in the ancient language of heraldry, in ancient French and abbreviated for convenience, which when translated from the sentence above means: "On a blue shield, two triangles open, of gold, interlaced in the form of a star, supported by a mound with three hills of green."
Crest: A man dressed in blue with gold ornamentation, holding in his hand a battle-axe.
The azure (blue) color of the shield's background stands for truth and sincerity. The gold of the two triangles stands for stainless honor. The green color of the supporting mound stands for flourishing fertility and vitality. The two triangles interlaced indicate a symbol of idealism, each point of the triangle representing some high aspiration or pledge to himself or his country. The crest, added by a later heir, shows a man of some wealth or military achievement indicating his desire to fight for God and country.

During the 12th and 13th centuries, the shield alone formed the arms. Later heirs to the arms added crests and mottoes, after the 15th century, to represent their own characteristics, much as a given name is added to a surname.
The mantle or leaves took its origin from the surcoat worn by the warrior to protect his helmet from the sun, and was shown in the early designs of a coat of arms thrown about the helmet; it is not, however, a part of the granted and recorded arms, but a decoration only. During the early centuries, the heraldic artists seeking to create a more graceful design took license in illustrating this mantle in a flourishing manner to resemble twining leaves, to form the graceful framework we see around the coat of arms today. From this ancient surcoat of the warrior, comes the name "Coat of Arms".
When researching a coat of arms, in the event that more than one has been granted to the name, the most ancient is chosen, thereby arriving at the original arms. When the name has undergone changes in spelling or phonetics (as many have), the variances in spelling are sought out and original spelling chosen, before searching for the recorded arms.

Our family name "Shuler" is not listed in Rietstap's book Armorial General, but the name "Schuler" has ten entries -- some with "van" or "von" preceding the name; some with an umlaut over the "u" in the name, and some without. The coat of arms depicted here was used as the fly-leaf illustration in the book "The History of the Shuler Family" by Christine Weaver Shuler.

INTERNET Adaptation by Sandra S. Bray