McDonald family crest help. Clan Donald?

Question

I wanted to see if anyone knew anything more about our family’s crest. I am hitting a brick wall in researching my paternal side of the family with the last name McDonald and I think learning more about the crest would help.

My fathers side of the family had a restaurant and used the family crest as a logo on everything. Normally, it was black and white and did not have full details. However, we had a sign that had the full logo in color, including the motto, “Per Mare Per Terras”. Looking into this, I stumbled upon Clan Donald from Scotland. 

The coat of arms on the crest resembles the coat of arms from house MacDonald of Ross I found here. http://wappenwiki.org/index.php?title=House_MacDonald_of_Ross 

I cannot figure out how to upload a picture on here with a link, but here is a link to the family crest shown on the sign described above. https://imgur.com/gallery/Z8yyHll 

It is a little blurry, but after googling, the only picture that matched was on this coffee cup. 

https://imgur.com/gallery/eLzx1la

Answer 1

I believe that the following WikiTree link will have what your referring to...

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Clan_MacDonald

~Brian Kerr

Answer 2

Technically speaking, in Scotland, arms belong to the chief of the clan and may not be used by anyone else; clan members are entitled to use the crest of the arms as a badge. ("Arms" refers to the shield; the crest is the device above the shield.)