FactGrid:The Global Genealogy of Lodges

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An increasingly international picture

FactGrid started with data on the Illuminati. The first data sets we incorporated were enriched with masonic backgrounds of the protagonists we were dealing with — the Illuminati had been subverting lodges and this was something Hermann Schüttler had tracked with the data he brought into the first major input of 2018. Christian Wirkner added about 800 members of Göttingen's late 18th-century lodges from his dissertation — with massive Illuminati overlaps.

A larger import of (mostly) German lodges came with a GND test input of the 803 lodges noted by the German National Library, a second with an import of [all the shelf marks of the masonic archival compounds preserved in the Prussian Privy State Archive, Berlin. Both created the German focus which one can still see on map representations — a focus on Germany in the borders of 1939.

The picture became more international from here on: Bruno Belhoste widened the spectrum into France's early masonic history with his research on late 18th-century Mesmerists, many of whom had been members of contemporary lodges.

Information on some 500 Grand Lodges came into the compound from the Wikipedia List of Grand Lodges with additional knowledge about external affiliations. (The list which we can create from this source is still problematic as we were not able to give a clearer picture of the nature of the various affiliations stated here

Andreas Önnerfors fed Nils Petter Sundius' Provincial Matrikel över samtliga uti IX. Frimurare Provinsen uti 18de Seculum [...] antagne [...] Ledamöter (c. 1831) into FactGrid: a table of the first 4296 (masonic) biographies of the Swedish Rite, 1735 to 1800.

Our data sets of lodges and masons are not homogeneous. Sometimes we will state archival compounds in Berlin and Moscow on a specific lodge. Sometimes, in the case of Swedish masons, we will offer complex masonic careers connected to the various lodges involved. In other cases we have created isolated items without members to name and without more information on the affiliations.

Generally one would love to have the information that is required to create the networks of the past and to give the history of the spread and evolution of Freemasonry:

  • We would love to reconstruct the cascading spread of Mother and daughter lodges on the global map?
  • One would love to know how systems evolved in this spread and ho they furthered the spread into different directions
  • One would love to understand the changes in the membership structure as masons made personal careers and as they grew older within the system they created.
  • One would want to connect archival data to the lodges — some have their own archives others have archive in varoius institutions that inherited or stole materials.

Data model

First Searches

The data sets of all all the lodges on FactGrid can be grabbed with these links of exemplary searches:

The data set of Gotha's lodge gives a pattern of in depth information we can give with more research:

But the The Global Genealogy of Lodges would demand a far wider perspective — a perspective which one would match with the genealogy of degrees, rites and systems that developed in this spread.

We are here only at the beginning. It would take more than a team to get the bigger picture — it would take a joint venture of lodges and lodge archives to provide the wider picture of the historical network that is here going back into the early 18th century.

Weimar

People involved

Bruno Belhoste

The networks of the late 18th-century French Mesmerists.

Isabel Heide

Arbeitet zu der Loge "Zur Einigkeit" und der Illuminaten-Minervalkirche Edessa in Frankfurt am Main

Reinhard Markner

Numerous publications on the Illumianti and 18th-century Freemasonry

Markus Meumann

Academic manager of the Gotha Research Centre

Martin Mulsow

Director of the Gotha Research Centre

Claus Oberhauser

Andreas Önnerfors

Expert on Swedish Freemasonry, linked to the Gotha Research Centre.

Róbert Péter

Published on British Freemasonry 1717–1813/ Different Attitudes Towards Esotericism in the Writings of Leading Hungarian Freemasons of the Enlightenment

Helmut Reinalter

Numerous publications on the history of Freemasonry

Stefan Sarrach

Mitglied des Bundesdirektoriums der Großen National-Mutterloge "Zu den Drei Weltkugeln" in Berlin und ihres Forschungsbeirats "Johann Friedrich Zöllner"; Forschungen zur Freimaurerei in Preußen

Christine Schaubs

Publizierte über den Einfluss der Illuminaten auf die deutsche Pädagogik und den Unzertrennbaren Concordien-Orden

Olaf Simons

Researcher at the Gotha Research Centre

Josef Wäges

Researcher of the 18th century Masonic High degrees.

Christian Wirkner

Veröffentlichte seine Dissertation über die beiden Göttinger Logen des ausgehenden 18. Jahrhunderts. Die Mitgliederinformationen sind im FactGrid unter den beiden Zusammenstelungen:

Data language

Links

Freimaurerische Unterrichtung.png Gesellenarbeit.jpg Wolfgang-amadeus-mozart 1.jpg Bodleian Libraries, Illustrations of Masonry (11th edn).jpg Masonic heroes print.jpg Zegel Loge De Veluwe.jpg Friedrich III.jpg Freemasons structure.jpg Man i frimurardräkt. Kabinettsporträtt - Nordiska Museet - NMA.0054191.jpg 1800's -Masonic- Steward Bullion Leather Apron.jpg