The Order of True Kindred is incorporated under the laws of the State of Illinois. It's purposes are to encourage the practice of the principles of fraternal love, relief and truth, to confer the ritualistic degrees; to promote the moral and intellectual advancement of its members; and to administer acts of charity.

Membership in the order is limited to Master Masons in good standing in regularly constituted lodges of Freemasonry and to their kindred who have attained the age of eighteen. These include wives, widows, mothers, daughters, sisters, grandmothers, granddaughters, blood nieces, half-sisters, legally adopted daughters.

Membership in the True Kindred requires belief in the Fatherhood of God, the brotherhood of man, and the immortality of the soul. Members of the True Kindred realize the solemnity of their vows, their binding responsibilities and the penalties if broken.

Local, or subordinate, bodies of the Order of True Kindred are called "conclaves." They are found in many communities in the United States and in Canada.

They usually meet in Masonic temples.

These local conclaves are under the jurisdiction of "Grand" bodies, which more or less follow state lines for jurisdictional purposes.

Each Grand body has an annual meeting for business and ritualistic work.

The Supreme Conclave has jurisdiction over the Grand and Subordinate conclaves wherever they may be organized in the world.

The Supreme body meets annually to carry on the necessary business and to confer the ritualistic work of the third degree.

There are three degrees in the Order of True Kindred:

    1) The "True Kindred" degree;

    2) The "Heroine of Jericho" degree;

    3) The "Good Samaritan" degree.

When a candidate petitions the Order of True Kindred, the local conclave confers the degree. The ritualistic work is beautiful and impressive, and draws its inspiration from the tenants of Freemasonry.

Most True Kindred choose to take the additional degrees, both of which are based on the Bible. The Grand Conclave confers the "Heroine of Jericho" and the Supreme Conclave confers the "Good Samaritan." Both of these degrees are conferred at least once a year.

The origins of Free Masonry are lost in antiquity, and it is certainly true that the principles of the fraternity and most of its signs and symbols have been revered from time immemorial.

By the same token, True Kindred degrees are linked to rites and ceremonies that have existed for centuries. Some have tried to link these degrees to rites and events of Biblical times, but no records exist which substantiate this hypothesis.

Nevertheless, it certainly is true that the kindred degree had existed in Europe, in its present form, since early in the 1700's. This so-called "Adoptive Masonic" degree is of great value to the Kindred of Freemasons because by it Masons can readily recognize their Masonic kindred, to whose protection and care, if necessary, they are pledged.

In Europe the degree was conferred on only a favored few, the wives and daughters of the nobility, and their Masonic husbands and fathers always conferred the degree on their kindred.

There are conflicting reports on the introduction of the True Kindred degrees into the American colonies, although all sources agree that this occurred around the time of the Revolutionary War.

It has been affirmed that Benjamin Franklin brought the degrees to America from France. Other sources credit Lafayette with bringing them, and he is said to have conferred the degree on George Washington and he in turn, on Martha Washington. The name "Martha Washington Degree" stayed with the True Kindred in America till the 1890's, when a Supreme body was established in California.

In America it was realized that the wives, widows, daughters, mothers and sisters of all Free Masons were as entitled to the degree as the kindred of nobility and of the rich and powerful; and possibly needed its instruction and benefits even more.

All Masons understood its rightful benefits and many were eager for their loved ones to have this means of recognition, that if circumstances should place them in peril, or among strangers, they might find friendship and safety. Masonic brethren in America continued to confer the True Kindred Degrees on their kin from the time of Washington on, and always with the intent to give them a means of recognition and protection.

During the Civil War, many women received the degrees; presumably to be of aid to them in case of enemy take-over and hopefully to protect them from harm.  Virginia at the time claimed many True Kindred.

In earlier years the ritual consisted largely of unwritten work, but by 1847 a printed ritual existed. However, many decades before this time the degrees, as we now know them had been conferred, both in Europe and in America and Canada.  Robert Morris, the sweet and beloved Masonic poet, whose fertile imagination and gifted pen added many adoptive degrees to Masonry -but who did not write any True Kindred ritual was thoroughly familiar with the True Kindred degrees. Rob Morris is quoted in Mackey's Encyclopedia of Free Masonry as saying in 1850 he could rite a "better" ritual for women. He said at that time of the "Good Samaritan" degree, it possessed dramatic elements and machinery equal to those that are in the Templar's Orders, the High Priesthood and the Cryptic Rite. I have always recommended the Good Samaritan and a thousand times conferred it in various parts of the world."  Note the really important thing in this statement by Robert Morris so far as the history of True Kindred is concerned: the three degrees of True Kindred were well known to him. They had existed at least much more than a hundred years before he wrote his adoptive rite rituals.  True Kindred are, indeed, the oldest of the Ladies' degrees, as we know them. But unfortunately, no attempt was made to organize True Kindred into conclaves, lodges or chapters. Master Masons continued to confer the degrees on their lady kindred all during the 1800's. But eventually True Kindred did become an organization.

Mrs. M.E. Degeer Gilmore, a young lady of Toronto, Canada, received the degrees from her father, and she became very interested in the study of its history and precepts. She visited the San Francisco World's Fair and while there she interested a number of Master Masons and their wives in the degree and in the possibility of organization and incorporation.  A Supreme Conclave was founded in San Francisco in 1894, but expansion of the organization failed to occur.  Interest in organizing True Kindred conclaves sprang up in Chicago at the turn of the century, and in May 1901 the first conclave in Illinois was organized. Other conclaves in Chicago and in down-state Illinois were organized, and by the close of 1902 a Grand Conclave of Illinois under the jurisdiction of the California-based Supreme Conclave was formed.  Because interest in operation of a supreme body in the California area had waned, all connection of the Illinois Grand Conclave was severed, and the present Supreme Conclave was incorporated under the law's of the State of Illinois in 1905. All conclaves anywhere in the world, and all degrees conferred are completely under its jurisdiction.

"Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal." So said St. Paul almost 2000 years ago. And this precept is fundamental in True Kindred belief and practice.

True Kindred members and conclaves take an active part in contributing to civic charities, orphans' homes, homes for the aged, churches, hospitals, and the poor and unfortunate. Many members sew and mend garments, make layettes and blankets, and donate goods to alleviate the suffering of those in need.

Contributions are regularly made to organized charities and to groups dedicated to helping the sick, the disabled, the destitute and the lonely.  Primarily organizations dealing with children.

With hope in a blessed immortality, and charity to all mankind, fraternal love, and helpfulness to one another, improving our time in acquiring that knowledge that will make us better, wiser and happier, that as we go hence to enter that bourne whence none return, may we feel that we have made the world better and our loved ones and neighbors happier, for our living here; and that the beautiful temple of eternal truth upon which we have been builders, whose Divine Architect is God, shall never pass away.

Revised by the authority of the Supreme Conclave April 28, 2001.

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