I went online and found a place that does family crests. I ordered it based on the last name, spelled the same way we do ours. I didn't see it before-hand, I just blind ordered it. Imagine my shock when I opened it up and it looked NOTHING like the old coffee table. No rattlesnakes, no "L", my whole childhood means nothing now. LOL.
This is the information I was given:
Originally from Limburg in the Netherlands, also Nicolaus Gottlieb Lutjens, a City Councillor of Hamburg, Germany, 1771.
Then, of course, I had to do research on what the heck the rest of it meant. There is a whole language dealing with Coats of Arms, or Crests, or whatever they may be. Based on what I learned, who knows if this is even OUR personal line of family arms - but I've decided I don't care, I'm going to claim it.
So:
Arms: Argent on a mount vert a palm tree proper = The shield in the center is silver (argent) with a green mountain and top of it a Palm tree, also green. The Palm Tree Proper means that even though the mountain is green, the Palm Tree is to be represented in it's original, natural color - or proper. The Rules of Tincture dictate that you usually do not want to put color on color or the same color on the same color, unless the term "Proper" is used.
Crest: a demi lion gules = A red half lion. 'Gules' means red in heraldic terms.
Pretty Freakin' sweet, eh? I wonder if I can find out WHY these symbols were chosen. Hmmm, I sense more research.
