Fraternal organizations

found: Reference.com Web site, Jan. 19, 2006("Fraternal organization: A fraternal organization is an organization that represents the relationship between its members as akin to brotherhood. There is a great deal of overlap between the terms Friendly Society and fraternal organization. Most mystical organizations are also fraternal." "Friendly society: A friendly society (sometimes called a mutual society, benevolent society or fraternal organization) is a mutual association for insurance-like purposes, and often, especially in the past, serving ceremonial and friendship purposes also.")

found: RootsWeb Web site, Jan. 19, 2006(RootsWeb's Guide to Tracing Family Trees: "Many of our ancestors joined fraternal orders or organizations--associations of people bound together for philosophical, religious, literary, social, athletic, or philanthropic purposes. They were called friendly societies in Great Britain. A large number of these organizations are still in existence today. Many of them, while based on the Freemasons, would develop for different reasons. Broadly, there are about seven types of these organizations. 1. Social 2. Benevolent (also Service) 3. Ethnic 4. Trade 5. Religious (also Mystical) 6. Political 7. Criminal.")