THE FAMILY CREST KOHNHORST
As mentioned in the previous document a certain knight named Rabede von der Codnhorst has signed a seal on a document on Oct.11th,1395. Said seal has deteriorated but can still be deciphered according to the City of Bocholt's archivar. This seal was specifically for said Codnhorst family name. It consists of a blue shield with a golden beam starting from the upper left corner diagonally across the seal marked with 5 pinnacles on each side. This seal belonged to the Codnhorst family of that time. No other family would be permitted to use that seal not even if that family had died off.
The assumption of a seal at this time, especially since we are celebrating the 800th anniversary of the name, forces us to make some changes to the original crest (seal). In order to keep pretecting the original crest the colors have been reversed, it now has a golden shield with the beam in blue. Since Dr. Baader proofed that the Kohnhorst family was for a very long period of time involved with raising pigs, it made sense that the shield is marked with a boar head in the upper left corner. The lower left corner has different markings designed for the different branches of the family. The only family permitted to have two boar heads (in the upper right as well as the lower left side) of the seal was the Kohnhorst family of the original Kohnhorst estate. The other family seals have markings that represent their specific trades, for instance the bugle (hunting horn) for the Nordhorn Kohnhorst line of the family, this seal is also the seal of the City of Nordhorn. The USA branch in Salt Lake City added a fishing hook (wolf's hook) to the seal, this family was related (on the mother's side) to a well known sea hero named Jan van Galen. The Louisville branch, USA. Adopted an ax on its crest, because Heinrich Kohnhorst who emigrated their was a contractor by trade. Brokkourten Kohnhorst's family marked the seal with a three mountain ( Drei = three and Berg = mountain), also appropriate since the estate was commonly referred to as the "Home behind the mountain". A. Kohnhorst from Lengerich added a falow buck ( Damschaufel ) to his family crest to show his close ties to hunting. Friedrich Kohnhorst from Ledde used a hawk on his seal, with this he points to the vicinity of the home and its well known hawk forests.
Some examples of our Coat of Arms or Family Crest..called a Wappen in German
 These examples are from the Kohnhorst Family History done by Arnold Kohnhorst 1949 |
 This
photo taken in the Kohnhorst Estate in Ladbergen, Germany on one of my trips to visit Adolph & Gertrude Kohnhorst and their son Alex in Nordhorn. They were kind enough to take us to the Kohnhorst Estate were I was amazed at our long history. You can see photos of the Estate on this website. If you would like a copy of this wappen with a white background just drop me a e-mail |
| Click for enhanced view | Click for enhanced view |
