The Faveri Family Crest

At our last Thanksgiving dinner with all the Faveri clan, my uncle brought up the topic of a Faveri family crest that could be passed on from generation to generation, something he'd started working on.  He showed us a preliminary crest that included the place of birth of both my grandparents, the Italian flag, and grapes (because my grandfather made wine).  I suggested we might make it a little more personal with imagery that reflected who my grandparents were. I asked my cousins, aunt and uncles, what their most prominent memories were of Mario and Mary Faveri (nee Gliozzi).  I received some solid feedback and these were the most common responses:   Mario smoked White Owl cigars, kept canaries and worked in construction.   Mary was an avid crocheter and painter and cooked pasta diners for her extended family and friends every Sunday.  There was always lots of wine which my grandfather made and was kept in 4 litre demijohns, it tasted horrible but everyone drank it anyway.   

One memory everyone commented on is how my grandparents transformed a 3 bedroom semidetached house at 354 Caledonia Road into 21 rooms consisting of several apartments.  As a kid, I never new which part of the house my grandparents would be living in because they kept switching apartments.

Also unique to the Faveri family is their heavy involvement in St. Paul's Italian United Church.  The United Church of Canada sold the property several years  back and now it's an affordable housing complex on Ossington Ave.  Not too many people realize that protestant Italians exist in Toronto and in fact, a few of my family members including my grandfather were members of the  Grand Orange Lodge.  Below is the crest I came up with and after having it printed on a mug, I realized it needs some tweaks to make it more legible.  More to come.