Discovering Masonic Roots

[masonictrucker]

Hello everyone,

I am about to be raised to the sublime degree of M.M. On the 18th of March, and as I have delved deeper into the rich history of my own lodge I have become increasingly curious as to whether or not I have any relatives who are or have been Masons. I am pretty sure that I have no masons in my direct line, however I do possess an extensive family tree including many distant relations.

That being said, I am wondering if any one knows of how I might go about finding out which, if any, of these men were in fact members of our noble craft?

Any and all suggestions are greatly welcomed and appreciated.


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[dfreybur]

Most grand lodges have genealogy services where you submit a name and they tell you if he was a member and what lodge he was a member of. This is normally for one man at a time. I have no idea if they will take a tree but I don't expect so.

 

[BodhiD]

I know it is 1.5 years since your post, but I am going through the same journey right now. Have you had any luck?
In my short search thus far, I have found obituaries of deceased relatives (often can be found online) to be a good place to start. They often list the decedent's memberships, and, if they had one, may report if a Masonic funeral rite was performed.
I'd be interested in hearing your discoveries, brother!

 

[hanzosbm]

As brother dfreybur said, I'd contact the GL with a name and birthday and see if they can help. That being said, GL isn't Ancestry.com, so don't expect them to do all of the work for you. You could also try the local lodges depending on how many of them there are. This of course is based on the Blue Lodges. Appendant bodies get really tricky, but it's a place to start. I was able to contact my grandfather's lodge and found out the dates of his degrees and petition and the chairs he sat in and during what years. However, when I tried to get into his SR and Shrine info, that got tricky.

 

[BodhiD]

Thank you, hanzosbm.
Ancestry.com isn't exactly "Ancestry.com" either, as that is where I started my search. Thus far, I've found Google to be a better friend, but perhaps I need to look deeper. I will look to the GLs at some point!

 

[BodhiD]

Sorry for the double post. Smart phone acting sketchy...