One of the principles of heraldry, or armoury, accepted over centuries and internationally, has been that a specific crest is to be used only by one individual.

The whole idea was that there should be a system of personal identification. A crest for an entire family therefore does not exist. After the father died, his eldest son may adopt his crest.

During his father's lifetime, the son may use his father's crest only after a special mark was made on the emblem, which is removed after the father's death.

In South African law, any person can design and use his own family crest, as long as it does not interfere with another person's crest. However, other families are not prohibited from using such a crest as their own. Read this.

 And to confirm my suspicions about the quality of the work published by Pama, read an extract published 14 April 2010 by eGSSA (Genesis 26, P4). There they confirm that Family Crests published by Pama were mostly incorrect and that N.H. Theunissen "thumb sucked" them! )