Enciclopedia Heráldica Hispano-Americana facts for kids
The Enciclopedia Heráldica Hispano-Americana (which means Encyclopedia of Spanish-American Heraldry) is a huge collection of books. It was created by two brothers, Alberto and Arturo García Carraffa, from Ciudad Rodrigo, Salamanca, Spain. This encyclopedia helps people learn about family histories (genealogy) and family symbols (heraldry). It was published between 1919 and 1963.
What is the Encyclopedia About?
The García Carraffa brothers started writing their Enciclopedia in 1919. They kept publishing new books until 1963. The last book, which covered surnames starting with "U," was published by Margarita Prendes Carraffa to honor her late husband.
This amazing collection has 88 books. It includes more than 15,000 family histories and pictures of family coats of arms. The first two books focus on Spanish heraldry, which is the study of family symbols.
Starting with the third book, the encyclopedia becomes a "Heraldic and Genealogical Dictionary of Spanish and American Surnames." This part lists over 15,000 names. For each name, it shares the family's history and shows colorful pictures of their crests. More recently, the work has been continued by Endika de Mogrobejo. This has added even more surnames, bringing the total to 17,000.
How the Books Were Published
In 1952, the earlier books of the encyclopedia started to be reprinted. The books cover surnames from "A" all the way through "U."
In 2010, the Library of Congress created a special online tool. This tool lets you search for any name mentioned in all the books at once. Before this, each book had its own index. This made it hard to find a name if you didn't know which book it was in. The new tool makes it much easier to find information quickly.
