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Position:Home>Genealogy> How can you find out if any of your ancestors were freemasons?


Question:Thank you.


Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Thank you.

If your family has lived in one area for any extended period of time it would be easy to look into it. The only thing you would need to know is if they were AF&AM (ancient free and accepted masons) or F&AM (free and accepted masons). This will make a difference! Besides knowing that distinct difference, knowing the exact names of the individuals that you are curious about will help as records tend to date back many years and there may be many people with the same last name.

Just remember that freemasons are men just like anyone else. They are apart of an organization with secrets not a secret organization. Their membership is something that most Lodges should not mind sharing with family looking for information specific to membership.

I hope that his helps!

Freemasons have records of all their members dating back many generations. If you know of a mason you can ask him to check through his lodge.

Wouldn't that be nearly impossible since they're so secretive?

See if you can find pictures of their tombstones. They may have the Masonic emblem on the stone.
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi...

absolutely possible, but the first thing I'd do, is make sure you have 'milked' all the records you can, for a certain county. If close to 1880, try the county genweb site, or see if you can locate the county history. Many Masonic members will tend to be lawyers, merchants, or such.. and those are often the ones having bios in the typical 1876 county histories that were produced as part of the centennial stuff. If someone was known in the county, it can often mention that he is affiliated with the Masonic lodge, etc.
Also, do all in your power to define if this person had an obituary or article in the paper when he died. That is another place lodge affiliations will be mentioned.
It is also true that most Masonic lodges will have records in the local lodges. All of the relatives that I learned about, were from alternative sources. Many of these will not always be online.