Hello from the Zopff branch.
I am attaching a rough view of the blazon for "Zopff". As you will see, (if
you didn't already know) half of it is the blazon for "Zopf".
It is described in heraldic terms as:
"ARMS: Per pale azure and or, dexter a phoenix rising argent reguardant, in
sinister on a tree trunk in fess proper a bear sejant proper, crowned and
collared or, holding an axe argent.
CREST: A phoenix as in the arms, between two probiscus per fess dexter
argent and azure, and sinister gules and argent."
Translated it means: "The shield is split vertically in the middle and
colored blue on the right(viewer's left) and gold on the left, on the right
is a silver phoenix rising out of the flames with its head turned back, on
the left is a naturally colored bear sitting on a naturally colored
horizontal tree trunk, with a gold crown and gold collar and holding a
silver axe.
The crest is a phoenix like in the arms between two elephant's trunks split
horizontally, the right one silver and blue, and the left one red and
silver."
From what I have gathered from the coat of arms information for Zopff,
the
person who registered "Zopff" in 1717 based the coat of arms on those
of his
father's side ("Zopf" - the blue side with the phoenix) and his
mother's
side ("Steckel zum Schwarzberg auf Judendorff" - the gold side with the
bear). I have lost my original information on this but will be trying to
get copies of it again.
I have been doing some research on my Zopff line and have found that there
are three Zopff lines here in the USA but have no real information for any
of the lines before coming to America.
I have a website with my findings so far:
http://www2.go-concepts.com/~zopff .
I would love to hear from anyone with some insights as to our possible
relationship. My line has a stone cutter and a tailor coming from Germany,
one of the other Zopff lines has oral history of a family business involving
manufacturing of draperies or tapestries or something.
Tom Zopff
zopff(a)go-concepts.com
http://www2.go-concepts.com/~zopff