McVickar Family Shield/Crest Update 2021
Back in 2001 (need to confirm time frame) I was fortunate enough to meet John Tom on a visit to our area in O’Fallon, IL and he shared a folio of amazing documents about the McVickar family specific to our blood line. Included in this binder was a copy of the McVickar crest, a very neat watercolor with amazing purple colors and what appeared to be a medieval helmet.
Fast forward 20 years and Jack McVickar, son of Paul and Marcia McVickar, finally decided to act on a long brewing desire to learn more about that watercolor and the history of our crest.
First and foremost, I make no claim to be an expert and would daresay just barely knowledgeable about the legacy of family Coats of Arms or Crests. There is a wealth of information available to research and while I made best efforts to quickly learn more, my goal was to determine how best to honor our past while celebrating our current and future. That said as part of this effort I learned quite a bit about the history of these drawings and through amazing support from John Tom McVickar, determined that our best approach would be to retain the current drawing as is and focus on capturing an image that reflects our current family in America.
We quickly determined that lacking artistic skills and time to complete this on our own, we employed a company in the UK who specializes in providing families updated family crests. Through several months of back and forth we sketched out what we felt represented the family as present and let them do their magic.
I’ve included a series of pictures to show the progress, from the original, through several iterations of the sketches to our final that will soon be hung proudly on our walls side by side with the original.
It was a great opportunity to learn more about our family history, which I intend to continue my research as well as provide an updated drawing that our families can enjoy as part of their continuing legacy and heritage as a McVickar.
Hope you enjoy!
Jack
