Dear Brother,
Recently, I was able to access a website about genealogy called ancestry.com. For any of you who are interested in tracing your family tree, or seeing information about other people, this is the website for you. There are millions upon millions of documents available for you to view. I was able to see my grandfather’s World War I draft registration card, and able to print out a copy of it. I was able to see U.S. census records all the way up to 1940, find the addresses of where my relatives lived, and then able to go to another website and look at satellite pictures of where those people lived.
This technology and the information that can be gathered by using it would not have been available to the majority of people even ten years ago. Our world is truly changing at a rapid pace.
This month we will be conferring the Master Mason degree upon two candidates. The family tree of Mozart Lodge will continue to grow with the addition of these two new branches on our tree. We may not be able to see the results on a website in the future, but the effect on the lives of these candidates, and those whose lives they come into contact on a daily basis is something that can be seen and measured.
Our Masonic fraternity, while it may change its methods, presents truths and teachings which have existed “since time immemorial” and through the labors of each of us, they will continue on through generations yet unborn. Our degrees communicate these teachings to our candidates, and they remind us of the journey we made through the degrees of our gentle craft.
The greatest heritage that we, as Master Masons can present to future generations will be the preservation of the noble cause in which we are engaged, making the world a better place, one man at a time
Sincerely and Fraternally,
Jack Daugherty, WM