Do family stories state that your grandfather was a Freemason? Did you find a membership certificate in your attic belonging to your great grandmother from an organization unfamiliar to you?
Do you want to learn more about fraternal organizations and how to find out more information about an ancestor who may have been a member of one of these groups?
This guide is here to help you.
If you already know all about fraternal organizations, feel free to skip down to How to Research Fraternal Records to learn more about using fraternal organizations’ records for doing genealogical research.
Have a question that we don’t answer below? Just contact us and we’ll try to help.
At the Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library, we define a fraternal organization as a voluntary membership group that supports charitable activity and which is organized around an initiation ritual and a representative form of governance.
Typically, lineage and hereditary societies and service organizations are not considered fraternal organizations. One of the main things that separates these types of groups from fraternal organizations is that they do not have an initiation ritual or ceremony.
Historian David T. Beito, writing in 2000, estimated, conservatively in his words, that in 1920, one in every three adult men belonged to fraternal societies. In addition, women and children also took part in affiliated auxiliary organizations.
Keep in mind that people could join multiple groups. They were not mutually exclusive. You may, for example, have an ancestor who was a Freemason, an Odd Fellow, an Elk, and a Moose.
Many people, when they think of fraternal organizations, think of white men as members. But while many fraternal members were white and male, many different people participated in fraternal organizations.
Fraternal organizations are, of course, inherently exclusionary. If you don’t exclude anyone, you don’t have a group.
These excluded groups sometimes created their own fraternal organizations. Women, children, and people of color who were excluded from white adult-male-only organizations often formed separate (or sometimes auxiliary) organizations.
People joined fraternal organizations for a variety of reasons, including:
Yes, fraternal organizations are inherently exclusionary.
Reflecting the American society that they emerged from, fraternal organizations were racially segregated. We refer to these two broad groups as “predominantly white” and “historically Black,” to differentiate between them.
Although it has roots reaching back into the seventeenth century, organized Freemasonry’s origin can be traced back to the founding of the Grand Lodge of England in London in 1717. Freemasonry then spread around the world in large part because of colonialism, which is how Freemasonry arrived in the English colonies in North America in the 1730s. The first Masonic lodge in New York was founded in 1757: St. John’s Lodge No. 1, which is still around today.
Historically Black American fraternal organizations have been around since the nation was founded. Drawn to Freemasonry’s values, Prince Hall, a leading member of Boston’s African American community, tried to join a lodge in Boston in the early 1770s but was denied membership because he was a Black man. He and fourteen other Black men later formed African Lodge, No. 459, after being granted a charter from the Grand Lodge of England. Hall helped found other lodges in Philadelphia and Providence spreading Freemasonry in the Black community. The organization that now bears Prince Hall’s name continues to thrive today.
Non-Masonic fraternal organizations soon followed in the early nineteenth century. The Independent Order of Odd Fellows formed in Baltimore in 1819.
Below are some of the most popular predominantly white fraternal organizations in the United States. Years indicate when membership peaked. Percentage reflects percentage of male population in U.S. participating.
Below are some of the most popular historically Black fraternal organizations in the United States. Years indicate when membership peaked. Percentage reflects percentage of male population in U.S. participating.
Yes, women and children joined fraternal organizations. Women and children often formed auxiliaries. Originally membership was limited to the families of a member of the all-male organization, although many of these groups have loosened these restrictions over the years.
Examples of this include the Order of Eastern Star, an auxiliary women’s group in Freemasonry, and the Columbian Squires—a Knights of Columbus youth group for boys aged 12-18.
There are also examples of organizations, such as the Patrons of Husbandry (more popularly known as The Grange), founded in 1867, which opened membership to both men and women from the start as well as organizations that only allowed women to join such as the United Order of Independent Odd Ladies, founded in 1845. Many other groups, from the Moose to the Odd Fellows, both of which originally excluded women as members, eventually opened their membership to them.
“Freemasonry” actually refers to dozens of organizations that are considered Masonic.
Some familiar examples include:
Exclusively male groups
Women’s auxiliaries
Youth groups
No, they are a separate organization.
Although slightly less complex than the number of Masonic groups that exist, other fraternal groups are often composed of many different organizations. The Odd Fellows is a good example of this. So, for example, if you find that an ancestor was a member of, say, the Ladies Encampment Auxiliary, it may or may not be apparent to you at first that this is part of the Odd Fellows organization.
Here are some of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows’ groups:
Originally male-only groups
Originally women’s auxiliaries
Youth groups
Other auxiliary group
Masonic organizations, while perhaps the most well-known, are certainly not the only fraternal groups. Below is a list of categories of fraternal groups that are not Masonic.
Occupation-based fraternal groups
These fraternal organizations restrict membership to workers in a certain occupation. Some occupation-based fraternal organizations effectively functioned as labor unions. This was especially true of the railroad brotherhoods. Examples include: Order of Railway Conductors, United Commercial Travelers, and Concatenated Order of Hoo-Hoo.
Temperance organizations
These organizations promoted and expected temperance—usually in the form of total abstinence from alcohol—from their members. Examples include: Independent Order of Good Templars, Grand United Order of True Reformers, Independent Order of Good Samaritans and Daughters of Samaria, Sons of Temperance, Independent Order of Rechabites, and Templars of Honor and Temperance.
Insurance-focused fraternal groups
These organizations were founded and based around life, health, and accident insurance. Many still exist today as fraternal benefit societies: not-for-profit, member-owned organizations offering life insurance as a primary benefit to their members. Examples include: Independent Order of Foresters, Catholic Order of Foresters, Woodmen of the World, Modern Woodmen of America, Royal Arcanum, Royal Neighbors of America, and Knight and Ladies of Security.
Social fraternal groups
These organizations were originally formed as social clubs and continue to have a focus on entertainment and social events. Examples include: Benevolent Protective Order of Elks,
Shriners International, Loyal Order of Moose, and Dramatic Order of the Knights of Khorassan.
Ethnic or ancestral fraternal groups
These are groups organized around ethnic or ancestral identity. They are not lineage societies. Examples include: Sons of Italy, Sons of Hermann, B’nai B’rith, Ancient Order of Hibernians, and Order of Scottish Clans.
Religiously-affiliated fraternal groups
These are groups organized around religious identity or affiliation. Examples include: Knights of Columbus, Knights of Peter Claver, and Loyal Orange Institution/Orange Order.
There are many historically Black fraternal organizations that were founded by, and open to, African Americans.
In some cases, Black Americans created fraternal groups that paralleled major white organizations (e.g., the Improved Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks of the World was founded in 1898, and purposefully paralleled the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the predominantly white group founded in 1868, which excluded Black men for many years).
Not all historically Black fraternal organizations paralleled the white groups that had excluded them. In some cases, entirely new, distinctive groups were formed. An example of this is the Grand United Order of Moses, founded in 1904, whose ritual was based on the biblical Book of Exodus, in which Moses leads the enslaved Israelites out of Egypt.
Here are just a few examples of some historically Black fraternal organizations:
Now that you have a sense of what types of fraternal organizations exist, it’s important to understand, in a broad way, how these groups are structured – because that will help you figure out where records might be kept.
Many fraternal organizational structures exist, but these three are the ones you’ll most likely encounter: State-level, national-level, and national and state-level organized
State-level organized
These groups are organized at the local level with a state-level governing body. They are decentralized with no national organization.
You can try the local lodge, chapter, etc., but you are likely to have better luck with contacting the state-level organization.
Centrally Organized
These groups are organized at the local level, but instead of having a state-level organization, a national organization serves as the overall governing body. There are no state-level governing bodies. Again, you can try the local level, but may have better luck with the national-level organization.
Hybrid (Nationally & State-level organized)
These groups are organized at the local level, and then again at the state-level organization, but with a national organization serving as the overall governing body. Depending on the organization, you may have to check the state or the national level. For example, the Odd Fellows keep their membership records at the state level, not at the national level.
Notable Exception
A notable exception to the patterns described above is the Scottish Rite. The Scottish Rite in the U.S. is governed by four bodies – two overseeing the predominantly white groups and two overseeing the historically Black groups. These governing bodies are called Supreme Councils. These Supreme Councils act as the central body over the area in their jurisdiction.
Now that you’ve had a small crash course in the structure of fraternal organizations, let’s move on to talking about the kind of thing that you will likely be interested in and looking for: that is, fraternal membership records.
Let’s first take a look at what types of fraternal records exist and then the next sections will go through each of these in a little bit more detail
Types of fraternal records
The most common are petitions for membership and Grand Lodge or local lodge membership records.
Petitions for membership can vary in terms of what kind of information they contain, but because they are forms for an organization collecting data about potential candidates, they can sometimes capture a bit more info than some other records. Unfortunately, petitions are not necessarily easy to locate. They are often kept by the local lodge, chapter, etc., so accessing them can often be difficult, if not impossible, and not all local organizations have complete and well-organized records of all past members.
Grand Lodge or local membership records often contain the name of an initiate, the date they joined, the name of lodge they joined, and a death date. They might contain a residential address, occupation, and other information. Each Grand Lodge has collected, stored and recorded membership information differently.
It’s worth noting that sometimes these records are compiled from other sources, as is the case with the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts membership records.
In most organizations, the local bodies are/were required to report annual membership returns to the governing organization. Local groups were typically assessed a certain amount of money per member.
These records may contain:
In the eighteenth century and early nineteenth century, fraternal organizations—mostly Masonic during this period—only issued membership certificates to those who needed them—usually members traveling to new places. These documents, when presented at another lodge, helped prove the holder was a Mason in good standing. By the late 19th century, fraternal organizations began issuing larger and more elaborate certificates—intended for display in the member’s home.
The certificates are issued by lodges or Grand Lodges to members. Keep in mind that issuing bodies do not keep copies. Therefore, they are often in possession of families or individuals
They may contain:
Annual Proceedings, often found in libraries, can also be very helpful resources
Proceedings often focus on activities of the Grand Lodge. They may list officers of subordinate lodges but often only provide tabulated returns without names. Proceedings will contain obituaries only for past officers of the Grand Lodge
Keep in mind that an ancestor might not show up in the Proceedings of a Grand Lodge but could show up in the Proceedings of another Grand body (for example, Grand Chapter, Grand Council, Grand Commandery, etc.).
When looking in Proceedings of various Masonic bodies, look for the words “necrology” or “memorials” in the index. These words are often used for obituary records.
Although not the norm, sometimes Grand Lodge Proceedings will list all of the members and officers of each subordinate lodge in their annual returns. The Grand Lodge of California, for example, did this regularly in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Occasionally, Proceedings will include photographs of officers.
Published histories of local lodges can also be great resources. They are often published by the lodge itself, usually in conjunction with an anniversary of its founding
While some of these books contain information about the founding of the lodge, they often also contain information about the members of the lodge at the time that the history was published. Many of these histories were published in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, but there are exceptions.
Some lodge histories also contain a comprehensive list of all members, although that is not as common. Histories can include photographs of officers as well as other members. They may also contain photographs of meeting places.
Lodge minute books can also contain helpful information such as:
Many minute books still reside with the lodge itself, although they can also be found in public collections such as a public library, historical society, university archives, and more. Access to them is dependent on each individual lodge.
Some lodges have someone acting as the historian who may grant you access to look at their minute books. Other lodges may not have the resources to provide access to their historical material.
General lodge records can also provide more insight. These records can include correspondence received by the lodge from members, financial assistance given to members, membership dues, and more.
Unfortunately, there are very few databases of fraternal organizations membership information are available online. Some exceptions include:
Keep in mind that these records are compiled from other sources so double check the information available there.
Here are a few caveats, some hints, and other things to keep in mind as you start to explore the world of fraternal organizations and how their records may help you with your genealogical research.
Fraternal organizations are not in the business of genealogical research. Their primary constituents are their living members. Some fraternal organizations have the information and resources to help with genealogy, but others do not. Because of this, success with genealogical inquiries to fraternal organizations varies greatly from state to state.
When contacting a fraternal organization about a genealogy-related question, check their website to see if they have specific information about genealogical inquiries: this may include fees and who to contact. In the Masonic Grand Lodge system, the contact person is often the Grand Secretary of a Grand Lodge, although with Grand Lodges that have staffed libraries, this may be the librarian.
Obituaries will often list someone’s membership in fraternal organizations. However, obituaries are often written by family members so it is possible that the names of the groups that they belonged to may not be 100% accurate. This is especially for true for fraternal organizations that have long and complicated names.
The Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library collects materials by and about fraternal organizations – that is, to repeat our earlier definition, voluntary membership groups that support charitable activity and which are organized around an initiation ritual and a representative form of governance. In addition to collections relating to predominantly white and exclusively male fraternal and Masonic organizations, the Library & Archives also has collections relating to women-only organizations, mixed gender organizations, auxiliary fraternal and Masonic women and youth organizations, and historically Black Masonic and fraternal organizations.
We welcome all including Masons, historians, educators, students, genealogists, and anyone interested in the history of American Freemasonry and fraternalism to explore our collections.
What we have in the library
Listed here are just some of the types of material that we collect that is related to American fraternal organizations. Our library has one of the most comprehensive collections of annual proceedings of American Masonic organizations in the United States.
What we have in the archives:
Listed here are just some of the types of material that we possess in the archives. We have an extraordinary strong collection of Scottish Rite, Northern Masonic Jurisdiction, material including comprehensive annual membership returns from 1859-1998. We also have strong collections of miscellaneous membership records as well as membership certificates from various Masonic and fraternal organizations.
The best way to find out what we have in our collections is through the museum’s online catalogs.
We are happy to help! Feel free to contact us.
