Thursday, August 07, 2008

A Symbol of My Heritage

One of the prerequisites for participation in the Summer 2008 Genea-Blogger Group Games is to create a flag that represents your ancestry, heritage, or personal expression. These flags can be created at WeAreMulticolored.

This is my flag. Bold, simple, clean lines. It turned out rather nice, if I don't say so myself ;-0 (Can you tell, I kind of like it?)
  • The colors Red, White and Blue signify the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and the United States of America. The first two are the homelands of my earliest known ancestors. The latter is my homeland.
  • The Red and White colors also represent Switzerland, as does the small White Cross in the center of the flag. Switzerland is the homeland of my Phend and Wiseman ancestors.
  • The two large crosses symbolize my parents while the four stars stand for their four children.
  • The four blue sections represent my four grandparents and the ocean their ancestors had to cross to reach this country.
  • You'll notice that the four "arms" of the large white cross do not extend to the edges of the blue background. The eight "notches" created as a result, symbolize my eight great-grandparents whose paths crossed and merged at just the right moment in time.
  • The tips of the red cross, which extend to the edges of the blue background, represent bridges that symbolically span the ocean as well as connect the generations.
In addition to Swiss, Dutch and English, my heritage also includes a considerable number of "Pennsylvania Dutch" ancestors, one or two Scots-Irish, and probably some other (as yet unknown) nationalities.

9 comments:

Kathryn Doyle said...

Gorgeous, Becky! Amazingly well thought out, full of symbolism and still symmetrical. In short, a PERFECT flag. Well done, you!

Family Curator said...

Wow, what a wonderful flag. Meaningful and beautiful.

Becky Wiseman said...

Thank you Kathryn and Denise! It was fun putting it together and I like it more and more each time I see it ;-)

Anonymous said...

Becky,
After seeing all of the flags at the Opening Ceremonies, I have to say...if there was a medal for creating the best flag, you've WON! Yours is a simple design, very clean, and very meaningful. Well done. I should have hired you to do mine...LOL!
Donna

Becky Wiseman said...

Thank you Donna. I'm flattered that you think mine is "the best" but there are some pretty nice looking and interesting flags that were created for "The Games".

Nigel Aspdin (Derby, UK) said...

I love the bold simplicity. It is interesting that your design came so close to the canton of the flag of the United Tribes of New Zealand, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Flag_of_the_United_Tribes_of_New_Zealand.svg

Nigel (Flag collector/vexilologist)

Becky Wiseman said...

Thanks Nigel, that's interesting, and kind of disappointing at the same time. I spent a lot of time playing with those flags and thought I had created something unique! Believe it or not, I had never seen the flag of the United Tribes of New Zealand until reading your comment!

Kathryn Doyle said...

Becky,
Actually I find it even more amazing! As I stated back in August, your flag is beautifully symmetrical and balanced and it is remarkable that only one other person in world history came up with something close. You might want to read up on missionary Henry Williams. You and he were kindred spirits in flag design!

John Patten said...

Cool flag, Becky. I followed the link provided, but I find it too tempting to want to put more elements into my own flag than is allowed, even if they do look simple enough. Even harder is designing my own personal Coat of Arms! Great fun, thanks.