Maybe a bit off topic but several strings on this subject have been seen here. Altough the Masons, as a group or organization, do not participate in politics and war, prominent individual Masons have always been at the forefront of every war including the Revolutionary War and Civil War. Perhaps an understanding of the organizations will assist some of you in researching your ancestors.

The controlling authorities in the U.S. is at the state level, i.e., each of the 50 states have their own Grand Lodge. There is no U.S. Grand Lodge governing the Masonic Lodges within this country as in other countries such as the Grand Lodge of Scotland, Grand Lodge of Australia, etc. So your best and only source is at your state Grand Lodge and any inquiries should be directed the Secretary of the Grand Lodge locally per state.

There are some splinter groups, as in all organizations, but the two main orders are the Ancient Accepted and Free Masons (AF & FM, sometime simple stated as A&FM in some states) and the Prince Hall Masons. The former mostly consists of Whites, the later of Blacks. Up until a few years ago (10 to 15) there were no exceptions that I know of to this rule. Now you will find some joint recognition of each other in some Grand Lodge jurisdictions but basically the two go their separate ways.

Membership to each Lodge is controlled by the existing members of that Lodge. The Grand Lodge sets some rules but applicants are accepted and rejected at the pleasure of those who are already there. The split between the races in the organizations followed the split in society. Each declares their legitimacy through different routes of their original charters, the Whites from the Grand Lodge of England and the Blacks from France which came to the U.S. via the French speaking island of the Caribbean. There are active efforts to bring some reconciliation between the two groups but changes come slow in race matters.

There is not now, nor have there been any official rule, prohibiting membership to anyone based on religious affiliation as long as the individual confess to believing in a Supreme Being. I have however noticed that in areas where the population supports multiple Lodges, members will join where their friends belong, thus you will find a larger proportion of Jews, Catholics, etc. in some lodges than in others.

Many Lodges closed in this country over the years especially during the 1930’s depression. Some records were lost but usually the Grand Lodge for your state of interest had membership roles and they have been retained. However, they are many times in a box somewhere and are not available for you to handle. The only direct contact I have had was with the Grand Lodge of Alabama. The Secretary told me that the records were at one time available for public assess but the handling of the old paper with oily fingers was doing much damage so they have placed them off limits for the time being. Plans are to have them digitized and made available in the future but that time is in the distant future.

Good luck with your research.