Hello everyone!!!!

I just came across this site and I think its a wonderful thing to have out here for people to use.

This is my first post and I sure hope someone can offer some help.

I remember as a child my father having several large coin like emblems that he affixed to the back of his car. I can somewhat remember what they looked like but I remember one having two Arabian style swords on it. I also remember him having a ring that had a onyx with some sort of symbol in its center. My father was not a very talkative man and rarely spoke of personal issues. Later in life, after researching my family,  I discovered that my great grandfather was a member of K and L of H St. Louis Lodge #2277. This was printed in his obit. So my questions are this….... Is there anyway to trace the family line in the freemason society? And I was once told that sometimes being a freemason can be a birth right. Is that true? Any suggestions on how I can find out for sure if my father was a member as well? Thanks so much.

Sandy

Hi there sandy,

First I want to let you know that K and L of H is not a Masonic organization.  Knights and Ladies of Honor is an entirely different group that is not affilitated with Masonry.  That might help clear up some of your confusion.  As they are an entirely different fraternity, they would have a different set of symbols, jewelry, etc.  This could include car emblems and jewelry with symbols in the center.  It doesn’t mean that they were affiliated with Masonry in any way.

At this point, I can see nothing in your message that indicates to me that anyone in your family was involved with Freemasonry.  More likely is that they are affiliated with another fraternal order that may be a copy or imitation of Freemasonry, as many of those have popped up over the past 200 years, such as the Odd Fellows and the Knights of Columbus.

That said, you did ask some other questions that I can address.  There is nothing in Freemasonry associated with birth rights or entitled legacies.  Each man becomes a Mason based on his own merits, not who his father was.

In order to find out if your father was a Mason, I suppose you could contact the Grand Lodge in the state he might be a member in and see if the Grand Secretary can find any record.

Let us know if you can find the exact symbols that you mentioned so that we can confirm what organization they belong to, but to me, it doesn’t sound like Masonry.

Let me add one more thing.  After some quick research, I found that the Knights and Ladies of Honor is a spllinter group of the fraternal life insurance business “Royal Arcanum”.

However, the K and L of H were bankrupt by 1916.  They are not affiliated with Masonry.

I appreciate you taking the time to answer my post. When I read some history of K and L of H some hinted to Masonry affiliation and some did not. Because it did go bankrupt so long ago it has been hard to find good info about it. There is a huge generation gap in my family so everyone who would have known about my father having any affiliation passed decades ago. I will search for the symbols I remember on line and contact the Grand lodge as you suggested. My father passed in 1994 so assuming his affiliation would have started in his younger years I am hoping that record keeping in the 30’s or 40’s is sound. Thanks so much for your help. Sandy*

My question follows the same lines as Sandy’s, both my great grandfather and grandfather were Masons and I’m curious to find out their contributions to your society. Is there a registry or another website that I can check out?

Dear Hope,

While Freemasonry is found in every state in the USA, there is no central authority or depository of records; each state has its own Grand Lodge, which is the governing body in that state and maintains the records for the state.

In order to find records such as you are seeking, you need to know the year each man was born and the year each died, and what cities or communities they lived in during their adult years so as to try to establish what lodge(s) they were members of. With that information you have two ways to search:
- If they lived in one place throughout their adult years, you can (probably) find the lodge nearest their residence by means of the lodge locator in the website of the Grand Lodge of the state. (There is a link in Askafreemason to each of the Grand Lodges.) You can then contact the secretary of the lodge and ask for his help; he should be able to look in the lodge’s register of members.
- The above, however, is not foolproof. The lodge you would be looking for might have ceased operation, or merged, or moved. Or in the case of a medium to large city, there may be more than one lodge. If you can’t find the lodge(s) you are looking for, you could telephone or email the Grand Secretary of the Grand Lodge, give him the relevant information and request his help.

This type of search, especially in the case of long-ago members, is not easy. Lodges are volunteer organizations, not businesses, and while they do their best to keep and preserve their records, their facilities are not always elaborate, and records are often lost due to fires, floods, misfiling, and the deterioration of old paper. (I speak from experience in this.) Even Grand Lodges, with better facilities than local lodges, have lost many records due to natural disasters and the decay of old paper. I wish you good luck and will be glad to give any assistance that I can.

How far back do the records go back in most states?  I know it is dependant upon a state to state basis but this is just a general question.  Thanks!

Some states, like Massachusetts, do have records with some members dating back to almost day one, 1733.  This is the card system.  Cards with members names are on index cards and are in a file in the Grand Secretaries office.  Not all members are listed and some information is very limited.  Some just have a name and birth date, or some just one or two degree dates. The MORI system is the new computer system, but not all the old records are on this system.  Some GL’s have two sets of records the old card and the new computer system. As mentioned above it depends on the GL and the Lodges.  Not all Lodges gave accurate records to the GL, and not all Lodges kept records safe.  Fires, water, human hands have taken their toll on records.  The older the books the better, for most were done on rag paper which will last for centuries, if kept safe.  When I research a member I start with the GL or a GL, from there if need be I look up the Lodge, and then google the name.  Today with people doing family research their is a lot of information out there to obtain. City or town records, cemetary records, history books, and the internet helps out to find a member.

Cambridgemason thank you very much for the wealth of information with answering my question.  It is very neat to hear about how some lodges are moving from the old card way of doing records to updating the systems with new technological advances.  Very interesting response.  Thanks again for answering my question.

illusionist - 05 April 2011 08:56 AM

Cambridgemason thank you very much for the wealth of information with answering my question.  It is very neat to hear about how some lodges are moving from the old card way of doing records to updating the systems with new technological advances.  Very interesting response.  Thanks again for answering my question.

Eric, I started working with MORI when I was secretary, and James has been working with it for a while now.  It is to the point where you can give James a name and he’ll tell you in a minute all you want to know.  Quite an improvement from the old cards (ask me Thursday and I’ll show you them.  Kind of like a card catalog at a library).

The Grand Secretary’s office is the same.  It used to be they’d have to research and get back to you.  Now you can call and they’ll pretty much just look it up for you while you are on the phone.  Of course records from a couple hundred years ago will probably still need to be checked on card.

Dan,
That would be great!  I would love to check out the system on Thursday.  Thanks for your help.  This is very interesting to me.  See you Thursday.