They are clandestine. Recognition has been denied by the UGLE several times. Sincerely and Fraternally
Using 3 and 4 letter is not good practice. These are the legitimate GLs in the United States. The are named the Grand Lodge of (whatever state) or the Prince Hall Grand Lodge of (whatever state). The two exceptions are Mississippi and Florida where they Prince Hall Grand Lodges are named Stringer Grand Lodge and Union Grand Lodge respectively. Sent from my SM-T210R using My Freemasonry HD mobile app
As Bro Byron points out the number of letters is not relevant to the issue. Which letters do matter, though. A, F, M, & are present in the legitimate names and, with the two exceptions of S (Stringer) in Mississippi and U (Union) in Florida, no regular jurisdiction uses any other letter. This means many clandestine jurisdiction names can be identified at a glance by the words or letters present but not by the number of words or letters present.
NJ is F&AM (legitimate) Texas is AF&AM (Legitimate) However you might have a sneaky group try to use AF&AM in NJ and claim lineage but are clandestine... Quite simply, you need to verify the legitimate grand lodge of the state and work down to the local lodge level. Mobile internet makes it that much easier when traveling.
