Hi there,

I can see Mr. Sherwood's point here from an heraldic point of view. Unfortunately, family folklore/myth and heraldry do not mix well. To be able to give you some information, one would need to know the country in question (presumably France, but which area?) and a general point of time within a decade or two.

What you have to realise, if you didn't know it before, is that if your surname happened to be Smith, for instance, there are over 500 arms registered in the name of Smith in British armory alone - to this you can add the hundreds of Schmidts from the continent of Europe that are also Smiths. There may also be many LeRois also in various continental Armorials and that is why it was suggested to you that you do some family research first.

I also am a 'pauper' by some standards but I, like you, have access to the Internet and the Mormon Genealogical Research Centre in Salt Lake City. I have managed to trace back my paternal family surname to the 1490s so far. None of those ancestors that I have traced have been Armigers - mostly Farmers and Farm Labourers, but they all came from within a 20 mile radius of each other. The Parish Records for all the Churches in that area are available through the Mormon Church Ancestral Research Centre, so I'm sure that they would be able to assist you in pin-pointing the area/time that might give you some clues. It's no good just looking for a surname and if you find one the same, thinking that it might be one of your ancestors, because without the genealogical research and proof of ancestry, it would mean nothing.

Try the Mormon Church Library in Salt Lake City <<http://www.familysearch.com/ >> and see how you get on there - I have always found them to be most courteous and helpful.

For information, I could not find any LeRoi entries in British Armory and only one LeRoy from Guernsey in the Channel Islands.