RECORD MASTERCLASS

Daniel Weinbren explains the important role that Freemasons have played in British society, and how to find out if your ancestor was a member

Daniel Weinbren explains how you can find out if your male forebear was a member of the Freemasons

Although Freemasonry has sometimes attracted fear and loathing, membership has offered many of our male forebears a safe environment in which to enjoy ritual; engage in self-improvement and charity; gain skills; and receive practical, financial and emotional support.

The charitable, fraternal organisation of Freemasonry, defined by its central organisation in England as “a system of morality veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols”, has been around since at least 1425. Masonic notions have permeated building and landscape design, and fostered key Enlightenment ideas about order and society.

In 1717 a Grand Lodge was created in England, followed by ones in Scotland (1736) and Ireland (1751). In 1813 there was a union of two grand lodges in England to form the United Grand Lodge of England (UGLE); this also covers Wales. Below this were provincial and individual lodges. Similar structures were developed elsewhere for men who were aged over 21 (or over 18 in the case of two Oxford and Cambridge lodges).

In the 1790s a concern that societies with secrets could be seditious led to tight government regulation of societies and gatherings. The Freemasons were permitted to meet but, from 1799 until 1967, they had to register their members. Ancestry ( ancestry.co.uk) has the digitised membership records of lodges that were under the jurisdiction of the UGLE and the Grand Lodge of Ireland, and their lodges around the world, in the collection ‘England, United Grand Lodge of England Freemason Membership Registers, 1751–1921’ at ancestry.co.uk/ search/collections/60620 as well as the collection ‘Ireland, Grand Lodge of Freemasons of Ireland Membership Registers, 1733–1923’

‘Masonic notions have permeated building and landscape design’

at ancestry.co.uk/search/ collections/60904.

Members’ Details

Most lodges provided the name, profession, residence, date of initiation or joining age at initiation, and lodge location. Some records are incomplete, many are fuller for the earlier 19th century than later, and some added other details. One lodge recorded members’ height, complexion, hair colour, eye colour and tattoos.

Analysis of the company that your ancestor kept will illuminate his life. UGLE lodges were hierarchically structured, the highest officer being the worshipful master. Thomas Marsters