How the sources for Queens lodge history are gathered, weighed, and corrected in this series, including what to do when they disagree.
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The sources for Queens lodge history do not always agree. This series follows Grand Lodge of New York records for charter dates, lodge numbers, and consolidation years, and uses other sources for what they can establish about buildings, ceremonies, and people.
Most pages carry a note about a disagreement. Service Lodge was chartered in 1923, except in the notes that say 1925. Mizpah was chartered on June 20, 1873, or June 21, or June 27, depending on the source.
A lodge’s own history and the Grand Lodge’s records do not always agree, and a newspaper reporting an event the next morning may not agree with either.
This page explains how the series handles that. It describes the kinds of sources the research draws on, the order in which they are trusted, and what the pages do when the evidence runs out.
It is short on purpose. A reader who knows how the sources were weighed can judge the conclusions, and that is the point of writing it down.
One caution first. The series is a work in progress, and the Sources and Notes sections on its pages say so where a citation is still to be added. Where a page relies on a lodge history or a newspaper clipping and has not yet been checked against the Grand Lodge’s published proceedings, the notes say that too.
What Each Source Can Tell Us
The research uses the kinds of sources a local historian would expect, and each has a job and a weakness. Not every page uses every kind. The notes on each page say which ones it did use.
Grand Lodge proceedings and records establish charter dates, lodge numbers, consolidation years, and officers. The months of consolidations are not reliably recorded in the working sources, and transcriptions still need checking.
Newspapers preserve ceremonies, notices, attendance, and what a building was expected to cost. Their scanned text can be garbled, and the original reports can misspell names or round numbers.
Lodge histories, programs, and booklets supply founding stories, first officers, and building details. Some were written long after the events, sometimes from memory.
City directories show where members lived and what they did for a living. Each is a snapshot of one year, with its own mistakes. Census records offer households, occupations, and addresses on a known date, but spelling and occupation may reflect what the census taker heard.
Historic maps and Sanborn maps help establish what stood where and what a building was used for. The survey date matters, as do streets that have since been renamed.
Property and building records help identify addresses, lots, builders, and owners. Renumbered addresses and gaps in what is available online can complicate the search.
Fraternal directories preserve lodge rosters, meeting places, and officers. Their printing dates do not always match the dates of the information inside them.
Archival photographs show how a building or a ceremony looked, but their captions may be wrong or undated.
Cemetery records help establish death dates and burial places where a person’s dates matter. They are used sparingly, and only for individuals.
A Temple Can Have More Than One Price
The cost of the Advance temple shows why the cautions matter.
A building notice of November 1914 gave $15,000, and a report a month later put the cost above $25,000. At the cornerstone in November 1915 the Brooklyn Eagle gave $18,000.
In April 1916 the papers called it a $25,000 temple, and one said $26,000.
The lodge’s own history lists $17,905.15 for the building and $3,157.77 for fittings.
Each figure belongs to a moment. Rather than treating them as interchangeable final costs, the series reports the figures with their dates and gathers the discrepancies in the page’s Note 1.
When Two Dates Answer Different Questions
Some conflicts are errors, and some are two correct answers to different questions.
A lodge goes through several steps before it exists in full: a petition, a dispensation to meet, a charter, an institution, and a formal constitution. Each can be dated.
Geba Lodge shows how far apart they run. Its dispensation came in October 1918, its charter on May 7, 1919, and its institution on June 10, 1919. All three have been called the founding at one point or another.
Island City’s dispensation of June 18, 1865, and its charter of June 18, 1866, are both right.
Others are ordinary slips.
Advance’s charter is July 2, 1867, in the Grand Lodge’s records, July 3 in the lodge’s own history, and July 8 in the Brooklyn Eagle of 1915.
Mizpah’s is June 20 in the Grand Lodge’s records and June 27 in its centennial history. A digitized Eagle page of 1915 reads Advance’s number as 685.
Streets add their own confusion. The Advance temple stands on what the 1915 papers called Grand Avenue, now 30th Avenue. Mizpah’s temple went up on Warner Avenue, now Whitney Avenue.
The Glossary explains the terms used for the stages of a lodge’s formation. The Timeline keeps those stages distinct.
What the Pages Do With Uncertainty
The pages follow a small set of rules.
Grand Lodge records come first for charter dates, lodge numbers, and the years of consolidations. Other sources are used for what they do best, such as ceremonies, buildings, and people.
Conflicts belong in one note, not in a hedge in every sentence. A page uses one date, identifies the source it follows, and puts the alternatives in a single Note 1.
The series gives the consolidations of 1973, 1982, 1987, and 1993 by year. Their months are not reliably established in the working record.
Fact, inference, and gaps are kept apart. A page says “the records show” for what a source states, “probably” for what a source suggests, and “the sources do not say” for what is missing.
The reasons lodges merged, for example, are not in the records. The Merger History says so before offering the familiar general explanations.
The pages do not invent scenes. If no source describes a ceremony, the page does not describe it.
The Mizpah cornerstone ceremony of 1920 is documented by an announcement, a lodge history, and a trowel in a library collection. Its article stays within what those sources establish.
A Record Open to Correction
The series will change.
New newspaper scans turn up, proceedings volumes get checked page by page, and lodge members remember things that never made it into print.
When better evidence arrives, the page is revised and the note is changed to match, so that the note always describes the page as it now stands. A date that was wrong is corrected in the text and explained in the note.
The series also leaves some things out on purpose.
It does not describe lodge ritual beyond what was public, such as a cornerstone ceremony held in the street. It limits its biographies to what the records document. Where a member’s life is thin in the sources, the page says that instead of filling it in.
If you have a record that contradicts a page, such as a charter certificate, a program, a family photograph, or a page from a lodge’s minute book, send it along through the Queens History Blog.
A source that settles a note is the most useful thing a reader can add.
Sources and Notes
This page describes the series’ research method. The sources used for each article are identified in that article’s own Sources and Notes section.
Grand Lodge Records
Grand Lodge of the State of New York proceedings and records. Specific volumes and page references for the examples discussed here remain to be added before publication.
Article-Level Source Notes
Sources and Notes sections of the individual pages in the One Lodge, Six Charters series, including the lodge histories, cornerstone articles, temple articles, and merger history linked above.
Note 1: Scope and Examples
This page describes the method in general. Which sources a given page actually used is stated in that page’s own notes. Where a citation is still to be added, the note says so.
Grand Lodge records supply the charter dates used in the series. Service Lodge’s date is May 3, 1923; Advance’s is July 2, 1867; and Mizpah’s is June 20, 1873. Other dates quoted in the body illustrate the disagreements the method is intended to resolve, not alternative dates adopted by the series.
Island City’s June 18, 1865 dispensation and June 18, 1866 charter refer to different stages of its formation. Geba’s October 1918 dispensation, May 7, 1919 charter, and June 10, 1919 institution likewise describe separate events.
The Advance temple costs quoted in the body come from reports made at different stages and from the lodge’s later accounting. The series does not assume that every figure covers the same work or includes fittings.
The series gives the consolidations of 1973, 1982, 1987, and 1993 by year because their months are not reliably established in the working Grand Lodge record.
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Related Reading
A Short Glossary for Reading Queens Masonic Lodge History
The Merger History of Advance Service Mizpah Lodge No. 586
Timeline of the Lodges That Formed Advance Service Mizpah Lodge No. 586
The Lodge Family Tree of Advance Service Mizpah Lodge No. 586
A Map of the Lodges, Temples, and Meeting Places in the Advance Service Mizpah Lineage
