Potter Coat of Arms or Family Crest?

Is your Potter family entitled to display a coat of arms or bonafide family crest? If you search on Google images (as I did for the image above) you will find several different family crests shown for "Potter Family." But how authentic are they? And how authentic are the Potter Family coats of arms?

To answer, I recommend that you do a Google search for "coats of arms" and then "family crests." Read what Wikipedia says as well as other sources and then decide for yourself if such things are "real." And if you are really and legally entitled to them.

Have a much better time having fun with such things! Click to this website and with your family design your own family coat of arms!!!   http://www.makeyourcoatofarms.com
You can add into the design any elements and meaning-symbols that you want.... and then have T-shirts, hats, posters, etc. What fun. 

I rather think that most of our Potter families originated from this un-royal occupation:

If you know something about the origins of your Potter family's name, please share!   

Potters In Southwestern Ohio

When I visited the Cincinnati Public Library last spring, one of the books I studied was History of Southwestern Ohio & The Miami Valley, Vol. 3, by William Smith, 1964. On page 372 was the biographical sketch of Myron T. Potter...... I've abstracted some notes from that lengthy sketch:

"Born at Fremont on 4 Jun 1903.... a son of Daniel Merritt POTTER and Ettie Otilla HUSS..... Daniel was born on 19 Apr 1860 and his mother on 24 July 1860... Daniel was a brick and tile maker in Greensprings, Ohio, and was the son of Henry J. POTTER, a Union soldier who died at the age of 27 as a prisoner of war in Andersonville Prison in Georgia.... Myron graduated from Fremont High School in 1920 and then Miami University at Oxford in 1925...... he was in the restaurant business all his life as well as in local public affairs.... he was a licensed pilot.... they were members of the Methodist Church..... Myron's wife was Florence Arabelle COE, daughter of Walter Randolph COE and Edith Elaine GOINS..... Walter came from Fort Mitchell, Kentucky, and was born on 27 Jun 1877.... Edith was born at Madison, Indiana, on 16 July 1881..... Myron and Edith were married at the Erlanger Baptist Church on 3 Aug 1932..... they had two children, Myron Timothy POTTER II, born 17 Apr 1935...who married Rene McCUNE..... and Geoffrey Coe POTTER, born 30 Apr 1940. 


Also in the Cincinnati Public Library, I looked at the sketch of the Isaac Washburn Family in the Historical Collections of Brown County Ohio, by Carl Thompson, 1969, and on page 896..........

Jane POTTER, of Brown County, married Nicholas WASHBURN; their children were: George W., b. 10 Jan 1830;  Nancy, b. 16 Apr 1833;  Rachel, b. 10 Mar 1836;  Jane (died infant);  Minerva, b. 12 May 1840;  Mary, b. 27 Mar 1842; John W. (died infant);  and D.M., b. 8 Aug 1850. 

Potters in the Immigrant Servants Database

I just came across an interesting database of information. Under the umbrella of the Price & Assoc Professional Genealogists is the Immigrant Servants Database. Here is the description of the database taken from their website:

This ongoing project introduces a novel approach for spotting early American immigrants in Colonial American and European sources.  The basic thesis is that most indentured servants were European immigrants.  This project aims to create a reconstructed passenger arrival list for people who came to Colonial America as indentured servants, redemptioners, and transported convicts between 1607 and 1820.     

Of course I copied out the 5 Potters that I spotted there:

Samuel POTTER, no personal information, indentured prior to 1678, came to the colony of Montserrat in the British West Indies

Simon POTTER,  (ditto)

Thomas POTTER, no personal information, indentured about 1662 for 8 years, came to Lancaster, Virginia, source was "Order Book Abstracts of Lancaster County, Virginia, 1656-1661."

Thomas POTTER, no personal information, indentured in 1774, source was "Magazine of Virginia Genealogy, May 1881, article "Legislative Petitions from Virginia Counties with Significant Record Losses."

John POTTER, no personal information, was a convict in 1740 on the ship York to Maryland, source was "List of Convicts Transported to Maryland," Maryland Historical Magazine, Mar 1948.

Hope these bits help somebody, somewhere and sometime. 
 

Potters in the War of the Rebellion from California

From the book, Records of California Men in the War of the Rebellion, 1861-1867,  compiled by R.H. Orton in 1890:

Page 95:  Edwin A. POTTER, Pvt, Co.A, First Cal. Reg, enrolled in San Francisco on 12 Aug 1861, deserted at San Francisco on 9 Jan 1863.

Page 95:  James D. POTTER, Pvt, Co. A, First Cal Reg, enrolled at San Francisco, mustered out at Las Cruces, NM, on 31 Aug 1864, term of service expired.

Page 123:  Joseph E. POTTER, Co. E, First Cal. Reg, enrolled at San Francisco on 6 Apr 1865 (2nd enlistment), mustered out at Drum Barracks, CA, on 6 Mar 1866.

Page 256:  William K. POTTER, Pvt, Co. G, enrolled at San Francisco on 23 Sep 1861, mustered out same on 27 Sep 1864, term of service expired.

Page 265:  Duncan C. POTTER, Pvt, enrolled at San Francisco on 19 Apr 1864, U.S. Army hospital steward, Co. H.

Page 265:  Joseph POTTER, Pvt, Co. H, enrolled San Francisco on 13 Dec 1864, deserted at Camp Union, CA, on 8 Mar 1865.

Page 676:  Joseph C. POTTER, Sgt-Maj, 5th Inf. Reg, enrolled at Camp Union, CA, on 1 Oct 1861, reduced to ranks per sentence of G.C.M.on 6 Jan 1863, subsequently discharged as Pvt on 8 Jun 1863 at San Francisco.

Page 707:  Samuel H. POTTER, Pvt, Co.G, enrolled at Placerville, CA, on 14 Oct 1861, discharged at Las Cruces, NM, on 27 Nov 1864, term of service expired.

Page 754:  William E. POTTER, Pvt, Co. H, enrolled at San Francisco on 27 Feb 1864, discharged at Benicia Barracks, CA, on 8 Jun 1865 for disability.