Jäger's Heraldry

Before I start with my heraldry I wanted to make it clear that my handle on here is "Jäger" but it has nothing to do with my actual given name or surname which is, Christopher Lilly. (My handle is a shortened version of a longer handle, "Fallschirmjäger," which I've used on online communities before and it means "Paratrooper" or, litterally "Parachute Hunter," in German. I am a U.S. Army Jumpmaster so that is why this name has significance to me).

That aside, my heraldry will of course be directed at my surname, Lilly. However, I took a DNA test with Ancestry.com a while back and I would like to discuss my racial, ethnic and cultural identity before deep-diving into my surname.

My DNA test with the most current udated results and focusing only on the high confidence regions show that I am:

• 42% Scottish/Irish/Welsh
• 17% Scandinavian (Sweedish, Norwegian, Danish, etc.)
• 17% Western European (German, Belgian, French, Dutch, etc.)
• 12% Great Britain
• 9% Southern European (Italian, Baltic, Greek)

Somewhere between 1700-1750 my Scots-Irish ancestors (most likely Scottish people who settled in Ulster, Ireland) were forced to leave what is now the UK for America; most likely because of criminality. My early family members settled in the southern areas of West Virginia and made Appalachia their home. This rugged landscape made hard and earnest men and women who cared for their families as well as their neighbors in order to ensure survival through subsistence farming, hunting and trading. As the United States grew and industrialized, most men from this area fought the nation's wars and made a living as coal miners.

This is this core of my ethnic, racial and cultural identity. Though I'm very familiar with my Appalachian identity I would like to begin to focus on my European one. My ancestors were the creators of civilizations, noble conquerors, the developers of science and philosophy, and the creators of social structures such as Knighthood.

I was able to attend a family reunion for my father's side, the Lilly family, last summer. It is supposed to be the largest family reunion in the state of West Virginia and it certainly lived up to that. This was my first time and I was able to do some genealogy research while there. Though I was able to trace as far back as the first individual who settled in Virginia in the 1700s, there was little information with regards to where in Europe they came. Thee waters muddy that far back but it's either Scotts-Irish and/or French. However, the Lilly Family Coat of Arms could help explain it:



I was unable to post another picture that describes it but it goes on to say, "The chevron, a v-like figure or picture, rank of standing, for those who fought under William the Conqueror in 1066. The lillies in the chevron, indicate the name of the family, Lilly, for which this coat of arms was made."

William the Conqueror was the first Norman (French) King of England who invaded the island nation from across the English Channel to consolidate his rule over it. This is perhaps where the bleeding together of French, British, Scottish and Irish comes from in my heritage.

The picture above shows a black field around the escutcheon but, it is not apart of the coat of arms (it is depicted without it in many other official representations). The escutcheon's field is divided by party per chevron with the lower half representing a diamond in the tincture of argent (appears to be white) with the upper half being gules. There are three fleur-de-lis (the French stylized version of a lily) on the coat of arms; one in the center of the lower, argent half of the chevron in gules and two in the upper, gules half in argent that are on either side of the escutcheon.

Something I also found interesting that may tie into my heraldry that I learned from reading and doing research on The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple Solomon or, as most people refer to them as The Knights Templar, was evidence pointing to the Order's Master in France during the year 1234 was a Knight by the name of Robert de Lille. "Lille" is known to be an older spelling of my surname.

While I'm intrigued and hopeful, there may be no way to connect this individual with myself other than the similarity in surname, the location of France, and the sharing of the colors of red and white on my coat of arms with that of the mantle and cross worn by the Knights Templar.

I wanted to share the family coat of arms that is displayed in my grandfather's house. He died a couple of years ago from a heart attack while on vacation at the beach in North Carolina. I was supposed to meet up with him later that weekend since I was stationed nearby at Ft. Bragg. I went down the day after his death to make sure that his body was cared for and the transition was made properly. I lost a great man who imparted a lot of wisdom to me. I always wanted to ask him about the family coat of arms but I always failed to remember to ask. I definitely regret that now.