Hope Lodge, Gardner Massachusetts, USA

+7 votes
201 views
How should I categorize my dad's Masonic memberiship? He belonged to Hope Lodge, in Gardner, Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States.
WikiTree profile: Charlie Reed
in The Tree House by Anonymous Reed G2G6 Pilot (203k points)
We do have lodge categories.

Use [[Category:Hope Lodge]]. I have set it up for you.
Thank you Natalie! I have a living source who is a Shriner in that area and arranged the ceremony for my dad's funeral. I can ask him if he will confirm membership of a few of my dad's cousins who I suspect were also members. Harry Walker's membership was easily confirmed via his obituary, which I have on file, so I have added him to the category also.

1 Answer

+7 votes
You should first consider whether categorisation is actually the right thing to do. Obviously you must record it on his profile but then as far as categorisation goes what benefit does it have for you? Categories are supposed to help with tracing families so locations are good things to categorise but club memberships? I am not so sure.
by David Loring G2G6 Pilot (162k points)

Lodge membership was very important to my dad, as it is to many men. Through the lodge, my dad kept up with his cousins and other lifelong friends. Such group categories can be important to someone doing contextual or cluster genealogy, which sometimes can be the only way to realize you've collected and conflated documents for more than one person who lived in a similar time and place. Ask who were this person's Friends, Associates, and Neighbors. For example, My great grandmother, Agnes (Dolloff) Reed had one of these dopplegangers and I didn't realize this until I noticed I had been collecting clippings from the local newspaper which described Mrs. Agnes Reed's involvement in the Local branch of the Ancient Order of Hibernians....my great grandmother was a Baptist! Freemasons in particular, issue lodge cards and records that document a member's location, birth, death, and occupation. Wikitree having categories for specific worship communities and fraternal organizations offers a quick way to investigate who was likely among our ancestors' friends and associates. That provides a fuller understanding of our ancestors- and you might find your ancestor in a group photo you didn't know existed!

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