Main / Heraldry-Differencing
Differencing
When branches of a family, or two armingers, had identical arms, they needed to make them different from one another to avoid confusion. To achieve this, the heralds made changes to the arms to distinguish the separate parties. Similarly, the sons of the arms bearer, by order of birth, marked their personal arms to distinguish them from their father's. Cadency, as this differentiation was called, often became the differencing used between the families of the sons of an arminger.
