Latest / Dits & Dahs / masonic cousins ish
Transcript
- Sue: ⁓ I was gonna show you these. There I've got a picture of Aunt Gert here and I've got a picture of a guy in their uniform and we're wondering if that wasn't Marsha's dad. Marsha's dad. ⁓ Juicy. Corporal Lewis Williams. He was a prisoner of war in Germany. He was in the air forces, first lieutenant air corps. That had to have been him. United States Army Air Force is captured by German forces after he was shot down on or about april fifth, nineteen forty four, and was held as a prisoner of war until his return to United States military control at the end of hostilities in May nineteen forty five. 'Cause I recall that mom and dad were told that when I was born it was likely that Aunt Gert would dote on me given given up Marcia for adoption and that to be aware. that that might be her tendency and the connection that I had to Gert and that may have been as a result of that situation. Yeah, we were close to comes up as a match, but really hard to tell. It is hard to tell, but they're not dissimilar. Yeah. You know, they're cl they're they're similar enough for me by eye to think that could be. Mm-hmm. Thinking Marsha was born three years before me. That'd be about nineteen fifty eight. Which means that would have been an old photo. Yeah. In the sense of He worth they was what, July it was about the same time Aunt Gert died, I think. July fourth, third, somewhere in there. Yeah, July fourth, nineteen ninety eight, I think. Or eighty eighty eight? I don't know. I guess what I'm trying to died before mom did. Mom died in two thousand and four. Yeah. I wanna say nineteen ninety eight, but I don't remember. 'Cause I think we all had a potluck back at Mary's place, didn't we? I don't know, I didn't go. ⁓ okay, 'cause I brother Sam read my letter I sent to r for him to read. Cousin Hal's bake means. Gert wasn't his scalp potatoes? Them too. Everybody loved his scalp potatoes. Yeah. Even when he burned ⁓ Even better when they're and Grandpa Hal. He died in what, fifty eight? I was in seventh grade. Thirteen, twelve, thirteen. And I remember being called out of school. Did they send Gert away when she got pregnant? Do you remember the? She went to Ohio. She went to Ohio, yes. Relatives or no, there was a home there. For unwed mothers. Mm-hmm. So no one in the community knew. She just went away for I don't remember her being away. Mm. But I was pretty young. Yeah. Yep. Someone found when they were selling everything out of the house whoever bought the her dresser. Yes. Found all the papers. Mm-hmm. And returned ⁓ to Mary, I guess. Mm-hmm. I remember that bigly. Yeah, I remember big one. I wonder if Like the Masons and the Eastern Stars were helping to facilitate Girk getting off to the home in Ohio. I don't know. I have no idea. And there ain't nobody we can ask now. No. Not sh not that we would anyway. But what I'm I'm getting to was the I wonder if his heart attack occurred after slight shortly after she was sent away. Do you know what I'm saying? The time you know, or it had to have been all around that same time. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Fascinating. I'm just I think I'm curious about it. Yeah. And who who inherited I know I guess his Masonic ring went to Dad. Dad was a Mason for a while. With I don't think the Masons did anything for my dad at at the funeral. You know. I'm wondering if he resigned or left the Masons during the time that we were growing up as kids. I don't recall whether he went off to the lodge or attended meetings or anything like that. And I never saw the apron or anything that you know, wherever wherever that's at. Who inherited Grandma Sinclair's Eastern Star Ring? Right there. I wondered. Goodness. Isn't that something? I don't know how I ended up with it. Must be mother had it. That would make sense. The daughter would inherit it. I wonder if this has any value. Yeah. It'll have sentimental value. No, I think there's gold and there's a that's a garnet. No, there's some value in that. Just as it is. Mm. As a Eastern Star thing. Mm. I don't even know if they still have Eastern stars. Yeah, ⁓ yes they do. Do they? ⁓ yes. They still have Masons and they still had Eastern stars. And and Grandpa Hal was the ⁓ he was a thirty third degree Mason, according to Millard's genealogy of the Sinclair family. And grandma that because he was the head of the the lot and she would have led the Eastern Stars Auxiliary and he would have been what they c I think they call the benevolent brethren to the Eastern Stars. That's probably ten carrot. Uhhuh. That would be my guess. That's what I yeah. Fascinating. Yeah. Well weren't the Masons kinda like thought of as a cult. They are. Yeah. ⁓ yeah. Of some sort. Of some sort. And I could see why Grandpa Sinclair probably joined because at the time, you know, living in a rural area and whatnot, it was probably a community of people that came together to help each other's businesses thrive, that sort of thing. Timing of when Grandpa Sinclair had a heart attack and giving up Gert's baby for sending her away for adoption. My understanding from some reading that I've done that the way that he died from a heart attack was meant to be the repayment of the spiritual debt that he created. And that if he had given if if he had sent Gert off, let's say before he had his heart attack, you could frame it in a way that his life was sacrificed to give Gert a clear name. He gave up his life as a Mason and on earth to make Gert safe. I don't know either. I'm just based on testimonials I'd read online and who knows. There is a pastor in New Zealand who's helped people get released from these generational curses and that he talks about the different types of death of Mason that he feels indicate what level of mastery of the rights as their sacrifice. And based on what I have been able to find, the I believe that our branch of the Sinclair's is descended, and when I go back further up the line, it is my speculation, because I haven't researched it thoroughly, that we are descended from Major General Arthur Saint Clair, who served right alongside George Washington. Saint Clair served at Fort Ticonderoda Ticonderoda in New York. I thought Miller said one time too that we were r related to the King of England or some such stuff. ⁓ yes. Millard has the same he's referencing the same book. I recognized it. Hal was interested in the Masonic Lodge. He took an active part in the Bedford Lodge number two ⁓ seven and was master in nineteen forty two. He was also worthy patron in the Eastern Star and a member of the Knights Templars. Edna was also active and an officer in the stars. And Cornelius, I believe, when emigrating to the United States, this branch of our family that I can determine so far goes back to sixteen twenty one and they settled in Bella Villa, New York, which is over by Buffalo, the western end of New York State. And I find it ironic that I'm now living in New York State. Not in the same area, obviously. And what I read in the Sinclair biography was that our major general lived to the right old age of eighty eight and he was destitute and collapsed along the side of the road trying to sell whatever crops he was growing. He also loved to live high on the hog. During the Revolutionary War he was he had a couple of battles that didn't go the way that George had hoped they would, yeah. And my supposition is that They've all would have been Masons. They would have all followed the Scottish rites. My supposition is that George probably placed a generational curse on that family line out of retribution. Given that George was the first Mason to come into the the colonies. And of course, there is no I have only anecdotal information that would build that story. So as I say, it's just my curious supposition.