Peter Kivett Family Association, Inc.

 An IRS-Recognized Non-Profit 501 (c) 3 Educational Charity, EIN 46-0500366

11/04/14

Kivett Family Coat of Arms

(A Sore Subject)

Reports of folks with "Blue Blood" ancestors with combinations of letters in their surname that happen to also be included in the documented Kivett ancestor's surname spellings come to light every few years. However, nothing has come to the attention of this family researcher, nor that of our most distinguished early researcher Austin Warren Kivett, nor Kivett surname analyst Philip Gene Kivett to indicate any of these "Royal" Kivetts have the slightest genetic connection to our Pieter - the immigrant.

At least two such "Discovered Kivett Family Crests" have been used by some, no doubt with good intentions, to represent the family of Pieter Kieviet (Peter Kivett).  These images are shown here:

      

Although both of these may have at one time represented some European family with a surname spelling similar to that of our immigrant ancestor, no connection to his family has ever been proved.  In fact, most likely our Peter and his ancestors for generations before were just ordinary commoners - hence the common, but clever, Kevit Bird has been chosen as the PKFA, Inc. logo, rather than a symbol of some imaginary family of royal background.

Sadly, the description of the components of the one shown here on the right seem to indicate that it is nothing short of a cruel fraud.  This was exposed by Philip Gene Kivett on page 7 in the 1989 copyrighted 2nd edition of his scholarly work The Surname Kivett.  There Mr. Kivett cites the source of this deception being the publication by Sharon Taylor of Halberts, Inc. entitled The Amazing Story of the Kivetts in America. In her work Ms. Taylor describes the implied 600 year old crest as having three lapwings on one half of the shield, and the other side three bars representing the "national colors of Germany".  Mr. Kivett observes, "This would represent a prophecy of the German flag more than 500 years in advance of its adoption in 1919."

Perhaps the most stunning situation is the total lack of even a single 10 out of 12 marker match of the y-DNA of this researcher to any of the over 400,000 samples from others now recorded in the Family Tree DNA data base.  One would think that some of the haughty descendants of these other "Royal" Kivetts would have had their y-DNA tested by now.  If any of them were related to us, there should be a partial match from at least one of them to us - but not so.

In spite of all this lack of evidence to connect us to any of these mostly English, Scottish, or Flemish origin folks, this researcher tries to keep an open mind.  Pieter the immigrant was not the son of turtles or frogs - there has to be a relative of some of his male ancestors or one of his brothers out there somewhere.  Given enough time, I think one may someday show up through y-DNA testing and help solve the mystery of Pieter's ancestry.  I sincerely believe that this result will put to rest once and for all these wild and wishful claims of relations to some form of Royalty - an easy thing for me to live with, but not so for many.

Please return to the article on GENEALOGY MISTAKES, and re-read Mistake #5:

"BEWARE OF GENERIC FAMILY HISTORIES & FAMILY CRESTS"

Proud to be just a Common Kivett,

PKFA, Inc. Secretary and Historian

William D. "Bill" Kivett                                                                         August, 2010