Names of Two Million (*) Freemason Members 1733 to 1923 Online (title amended)

[BushInn1746]

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."

[barryd]

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.

[mirl]

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.

[barryd]

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.

[BushInn1746]

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

[CarolA3]

"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)

[mirl]

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.

[joboy]

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

[pinefamily]

William Hogarth the artist will be on that list too.