 For
each herb [clan shield, coat of arms] the blazon or verbal
description of the arms is first given in authentic heraldic style,
followed by a translation from the Polish description by Niesiecki.
The right and left sides of a shield are identified from the
standpoint of the bearer, i. e., the one holding the shield. His
right would be your left and vice versa. The tinctures (colors) in
heraldry are as follows: azure = blue, gules = red; sable
= black; or = gold, argent = silver; vert = green.
In heraldry all charges (pictures) on a shield are assumed to be
facing dexter (right side) unless otherwise specified. In Polish
heraldry all animals or birds are assumed to be in their natural
coloring unless otherwise specified.
Arms: Gules, a cross patee concave argent,
surmounted of a raven sable, holding in its beak a ring or.
Whereupon is set for a crest: out of a ducal coronet three
ostrich plumes proper.
There should be a Knight's cross on a red field, on the cross is
a raven holding in its beak a gold ring, its head facing the
right side of the shield. On the helmet are three ostrich plumes:
thus Okolski decribes it, but others do not write that
it is a raven on the cross, but only a bird. Bielski fol.
172, M. S. P. Kojal. The Frenchman Willibaldus, first
archbishop of Gniezno, is supposed to have brought these arms
with him to Poland; he ascended that seat in 966 and occupied it
for four years, dying in 970, although others would include this
Willibald under the arms Krucynia.
Families Using These Arms
Boguslawski, Cwiklowski, Drozdowski, Galczewski, Szczycienski,
Szymanowski, Z~elazo
[Addition to Niesiecki's text by the 19th-century editor, J.
N. Bobrowicz.] Kuropatnicki, Malachowski and others give the
following families as using these arms: Jezierzynski, Niemierza,
Niemira.
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