RootsChat.Com
General => The Common Room => Topic started by: BushInn1746 on Tuesday 24 November 15 00:14 GMT (UK)
-
Have not checked, but it was in the news yesterday, Monday ...
"Records of two million members of the secretive Freemasons have been published online, showing that its members during Britain's imperial heyday included Winston Churchill, Oscar Wilde and Rudyard Kipling."
"Membership records from 1733 to 1923 -- mainly in Britain and the British Empire --- have been digitised and published on the family history website Ancestry, the company said Monday."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/12010573/Was-Titanic-inquiry-scuppered-by-the-Freemasons.html
"A secret archive containing the names of two million Freemasons has been made public for the first time on the genealogy site Ancestry which reveals extensive Masonic involvement in the controversial British investigation into the catastrophe."
-
Yes it is up and running. I knew one in-law of mine, Walter Triggs, who Joined the Freemasons in India. Joined the 3rd Dragoon Guards as a Private and retired as a Captain. He is on the ancestry site.
Most likely he warranted the promotions but joining the Freemasons would not have hurt him.
-
Would you mind if I ask if you can find Alfred William Edward Plumpton born 1840 (other sources have 1842 or 1848 but 1840 is the correct year) in this register.
I have references to him being a Freemason in India in the 1870's and again in Melbourne after 1878.
-
Cannot comment too much as it is a proprietary site but Alfred and Alfred W.E. are on it the site.
You can subscribe to Ancestry or go to your local library which has a subscription to look up his name. Manchester, England and Melbourne. No India.
-
Apparently, I am told my 2 x Gt. Grandfather of Leicester was a Freemason and I hope to find him out at the local Library too and look to see if my 4 x Gt. G., is listed.
Most libraries have a time limit, and I presume you need to click England /UK on the opening search page, as Ancestry anoyingly defaults mostly to US results for me, rather than give all the English ones first.
I have only recently seen the "event" date function and found a definite relation in 1814 and 1812 in the Land Tax records of the town where they married and lived.
I'm afraid I did my family history back to 1815 by visiting Archives and Libraries and scrolling through the Census films and Voters Rolls and Street Directories of three other Counties and ordering the usual BMD Register Office Certificates at each stage, to confirm the Census.
I'm stuck, because I now want to go back from the 1815 Marriage Bond, Licence, Register copies I have /1812 Land Tax entry, but he died before the 1851 Census, there is no burial or baptism in the Parish Register and records which might help are not online.
Several members on another Rootschat thread have given me some ideas to try at Archives.
Regards Mark
-
"Records of two million members of the secretive Freemasons have been published online, showing that its members during Britain's imperial heyday included Winston Churchill, Oscar Wilde and Rudyard Kipling."
Churchill got about a bit. He was also a member of the Ancient Order of Druids. Not a lot of people know that.
Carol (not a Druid)
-
Thanks, Barryd, for taking the time.
Manchester is where he was before leaving England in 1876, then he spent three years touring the East before settling in Melbourne from 1878 to 1891 then returning to England.
-
Firstly let me advise that I am a Freemason but no longer active because of age and disability.
The newspaper article appears to be written by "an agency" which is a way for the newspaper to distance itself from the truth.
Take a look at this and form your own opinion;
http://www98.griffith.edu.au/dspace/bitstream/handle/10072/44988/75149_1.pdf?seque
The final paragraph says it all;
"Our previous research alludes to an increased, potentially dominant, role for news agency copy in
the online news environment (Johnston & Forde, 2009). Similarly, this current examination of selected
case studies of AAP content and follow-up stories on news media Web sites provides some indications that
the special “heightened” place that news agencies occupy in the news media may be leading to increases in the publication of poor and inaccurate copy. Coupled with the ever-widening and speed-driven Internet news hole,news quality and diversity on major news Web sites may be under threat, and at the very least, this field of study requires further critical analysis"
Finally one cannot just "Join the masons" .......... please research this further.
Joe
-
William Hogarth the artist will be on that list too.
-
Most libraries have a time limit, and I presume you need to click England /UK on the opening search page, as Ancestry anoyingly defaults mostly to US results for me, rather than give all the English ones first.
Regards Mark
Hi Mark
If you are using Library Edition, from the landing page click the green button "begin searching",
on the next page go to the top right of the screen and next to Special Collections is a button for the "card catalogue", click that
and type the word "freemason" not freemasons or masons into the box and the one title returned is the one you want.
It might be a bit quicker than selecting the country and going on from there.
-
My gg-grandfather is listed several times, as a member and founder member of a few lodges, some of which we knew about and some we didn't.
-
I must admit to being amused by the option on the search page to specify whether you were looking for a male or female.
-
I must admit to being amused by the option on the search page to specify whether you were looking for a male or female.
I sat after reading your post, Ray, trying to find an appropriate comment. I have nothing. ;D
-
why?
https://www.owf.org.uk/
celebrated their centenary in 2008
-
Thank you, Dawn. I have learned something today.
-
especially for you
http://freemasonryformenandwomen.org.au/female-freemasons
-
Even so, selecting Female produces no good matches...
-
I am sure there are always exceptions but I think I'm correct in stating that Freemasonry is essentially a male preserve. If anyone can find a female in the registers please shout out and prove me wrong.
By way of example, searching the registers, for the male gender, for the twenty years between 1901 and 1921, reveals one million, six hundred and fifty three thousand, five hundred and eighty four results. Searching for the female gender over the same period reveals precisely zero.
Someone inputting the data must have decided that they were all male so why have a gender tab?
-
Hi Ray
There are a few Anns and Marys but they've been set to Male
But who knows what those freemasons get up to in the privacy of the Lodge :)
-
The United Grand Lodge of England is a male preserve and has no affiliation with the women's movement.
So there shouldn't be any female entries in the dataset online at Ancestry. One supposes that those that are, are there because of mis-transcription.
-
That young "miss" has been the bane of our genealogical lives for a long time. ;D
-
Hi Mark
If you are using Library Edition, from the landing page click the green button "begin searching",
on the next page go to the top right of the screen and next to Special Collections is a button for the "card catalogue", click that
and type the word "freemason" not freemasons or masons into the box and the one title returned is the one you want.
It might be a bit quicker than selecting the country and going on from there.
Hello Dawn and Joe
Regarding Dawn's comment, we have Ancestry Institution. Don't know how that differs to Library and personal (home) editions, but I will look out for the other button next time ;D
However, managed to find my 2 X Gt. Grandfather listed as a Freemason in the 1870s, it says "Commercial Lodge" place and his age, against the entry.
Regarding reply #7 by Joe.
Agreed, you cannot always rely on news articles to be entirely accurate.
Thanks, kind regards, Mark
-
No difference between the 2, most probably a marketing exercise
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=728356.msg5729181#msg5729181
-
Lawrence Ellliot Creasy, MD. A member of the Aesculapius Masonic Lodge. (For Medical Doctors and allied professions).
-
Thread title is a little misleading: for British read English. The only ancestor I know to have been a mason doesn't show up, as he was a member of the Mold Lodge in N.Wales. Pity ....
-
"Records of two million members of the secretive Freemasons have been published online ....
"Membership records from 1733 to 1923 -- mainly in Britain and the British Empire --- have been digitised and published on the family history website Ancestry
Can anyone confirm if these records are only England's? Thanks
-
The heading for the collection states "England - United Grand Lodge of England Freemason Membership Registers - 1751-1921"
-
The heading for the collection states "England - United Grand Lodge of England Freemason Membership Registers - 1751-1921"
Indeed - but not the title of this thread. I mentioned above my ancestor, a member of the Mold lodge. Wondering about my grandfather, I found he appears several times, mostly in Indian lodges. Why India but not Wales? Is it a separate 'authority'?
PS - having searched for family members (and found some) in Glamorgan, at least some of Wales is included. However I know from on-line press cuttings of the period that Charles Liversidge was attached to the Mold lodge, and some of his daughters successfully applied for school expenses from the masons.
The Mold lodge also shows up with several Jones members, as one would expect. Maybe Charles was not initiated?
-
My apologies Andrew, I was merely responding to the question posed by Grothenwell. :-[
-
Thanks BB
-
Thank you Bushlnn. I looked up a 2nd ggfather that I knew was a Mason, found him and his father and grandfather and another 2 ggfather, along with uncles and cousin going back to the late 1700s.
I haven't been on Ancestry for some time, so I am glad I checked here to find out what is new.
-
having searched for family members (and found some) in Glamorgan, at least some of Wales is included. However I know from on-line press cuttings of the period that Charles Liversidge was attached to the Mold lodge, and some of his daughters successfully applied for school expenses from the masons.
The Mold lodge also shows up with several Jones members, as one would expect. Maybe Charles was not initiated?
For some reason best known to the system, CKL's masonry record has become visible. He was initiated in late 1874, about a year before he moved to Anglesey.
-
I have removed the word British, but it does not remove all references, if I could delete British from the thread altogether, I would.
Mark
-
Thank you Bushlnn. I looked up a 2nd ggfather that I knew was a Mason, found him and his father and grandfather and another 2 ggfather, along with uncles and cousin going back to the late 1700s.
I haven't been on Ancestry for some time, so I am glad I checked here to find out what is new.
Hello Matilda
I was told my 2 Gt. Grandfather was a Freemason and I found him in the Commercial Lodge at Leicester.
Mark
-
I've edited the topic title on the first page