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Author Topic: Question about Freemason records  (Read 619 times)

Offline Matilda SP

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Question about Freemason records
« on: Saturday 05 December 15 23:24 GMT (UK) »
Anyone knowledgeable about older Masonic records? I have searched the Ancestry records for Masons in Cornwall and have found several records in the right place and time to be my ancestors.

Family has passed down certificate dates for two ancestors. My question is: could a certificate be dated as much as two years after the initiation date?

The certificate dates I have don't match up with initiation dates. This is in early 1820s.

Bateman, Davis or Davies, Hornblower, Oxenbold (Oxenbould) Penrose, Prince, Sims, Street, Woodland

Offline pinefamily

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Re: Question about Freemason records
« Reply #1 on: Sunday 06 December 15 07:06 GMT (UK) »
Do you have the actual certificates, or just dates from them? The reason I ask is, what sort of certificate were they? A membership certificate, or perhaps a certificate of advancement within the Lodge?
I am Australian, from all the lands I come (my ancestors, at least!)

Pine/Pyne, Dowdeswell, Kempster, Sando/Sandoe/Sandow, Nancarrow, Hounslow, Youatt, Richardson, Jarmyn, Oxlade, Coad, Kelsey, Crampton, Lindner, Pittaway, and too many others to name.
Devon, Dorset, Gloucs, Cornwall, Warwickshire, Bucks, Oxfordshire, Wilts, Germany, Sweden, and of course London, to name a few.

Offline GrahamSimons

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Re: Question about Freemason records
« Reply #2 on: Sunday 06 December 15 16:22 GMT (UK) »
It might be worth checking whether the Lodge is still in existence. I had a look at the outside of my great-grandfather's building as I was passing and happened to meet someone there who was doing some tidying up - he was ever so generous with his time, showed me round, pointed out great-grandfather's name on the wall - all sorts of things.
Simons Barrett Jaffray Waugh Langdale Heugh Meade Garnsey Evans Vazie Mountcure Glascodine Parish Peard Smart Dobbie Sinclair....
in Stirlingshire, Roxburghshire; Bucks; Devon; Somerset; Northumberland; Carmarthenshire; Glamorgan

Offline Matilda SP

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Re: Question about Freemason records
« Reply #3 on: Sunday 06 December 15 19:41 GMT (UK) »
Someone in my extended family should have the original. It was described as "original certificate of Membership, No. 127, Dated 1 May 1822." I have been trying to find the original publication but haven't been able to yet. The copy I have includes misspellings of place names, so the date could be wrong as well. The Lodge Number was 127.

I did find an online book, History of Freemasonry in West Cornwall that mostly agrees with the Ancestry records (and is much easier to read) and does give me more information. A member by the same name as my ancestor was shown as a secretary in 1822, so possibly that is what the certificate was for.

The Lodge is still in existence, although it did close for a period. They have a Facebook and website page. I can check to see if I can email with someone there.

I have found other names who might have been great uncles and cousins. Right now I am intrigued and the fact that the records include the professions gives me more to go on.
Bateman, Davis or Davies, Hornblower, Oxenbold (Oxenbould) Penrose, Prince, Sims, Street, Woodland
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