Heraldry

[Galad Aglaron]

I wasn't sure if this should go here.... sweatdrop

But if anyone here knows anything about heraldry, could they PLEASE teach me? This is one area where I am lacking. "Damsons fleur-de-lis on gules" doesn't really make sense to me.  

[Lady_Elainee]

Heraldry is simply a symbol of a prominent family to distinguish themselves from others. The fleur-de-lis is the symbol of the French royalty.

For your example, Damsons is the family, fleur-de-lis is the symbol, and gules is the material or color.

I believe it would look something like this:  

[Galad Aglaron]

Ohh, okay.

So they just use funny names for colours and things.

Still, something like this:

Shield renaissance, Quarterly, I gules a lion salient to sinister Or, II vert a serpent argent, III Or a badger reguardant proper, IV azure an eagle displayed Or, in fesse couped Or scroll with letter H sable, top riband for the name Hogwarts, base riband for the motto "draco dormiens nunquam titillandus".

is pretty incomprehensible unless you know what it's talking about beforehand.  

[GeneralFishSama]

That's mine.

The red cross stands for being in a Crusade. The helmet designates a stalwart defense. The Swords (duh) mean warrior. The sparrows stand for "displacement from homeland" but seeing as I'm Irish American that's living in Australia but's always felt more patriotic to Ireland than the USA I'm sure the displacement hasn't ended in my family line. XD  

[Lady_Elainee]

@ Galad Damodred: Yes, they just use uncommon, maybe even Archaic words. I believe those words originated from Latin.

Oh, that's a tough one. I believe it's about a shield divided into four sections. I. red lion; II. green serpent; III. gold badger; IV. blue eagle; a gold horizontal band in the center with a dark red or black letter H in the center; ribbon on top with the name Hogwarts and ribbon on the bottom for the motto. It should look something like this: though I was too lazy and lack the artistic ability on MSPaint to include the animals. xD

fishsama999's illustrates this quite well.

As for the adjectives that follow, such as "salient to sinister," those are just there as sophisticated descriptions of the animals.

@ fishsama999: Your family must have had a long history of valor and glory. =]  

[connielass]

I can't find an image of my family crest for display, but one thing my sister and I discovered on our quest for family history: if a cross is displayed anywhere on your crest, it means either that someone fought in a crusade, or that someone was a member of the Church.
On my crest, there's a cross "etched" into the helmet, which is supposed to mean that someone fought in one of the Crusades. I think.