Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes

[Sally Rawson]

Hi, I'm tracing my family history and have come across this photograph. It has been suggested this is my great great grandad and that he was part of the RAOB. I require more information to help verify this information, does anybody have any suggestions or thoughts on the photograph? Are there any lists of past members of the RAOB? Thanks in advance 

[peter monahan]

Sally

I know that the RAOWB was a very large fraternal order - apparently the largest in GB in the early 20th century and also, I gather, very popular with WWI vets in Australai for some reason.  Sadly, I suspect that membership rolls would have been kept at the local lodge or chapter level and have long since disappeared, unless one is very lucky, but the link to Wiki attached has a couple links at the bottom.  There is a forum and a US national offcie/site, so they may be able to assist you.  Good luck!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Antediluvian_Order_of_Buffaloes

[Sally Rawson]

Many Thanks for the information, it is appreciated 

[Megan]

There happens to be a branch of the RAOB in Crewe - they asked to use the room normally rented by a society I run for one of their meetings - and they told me that it's basically organised at a local level. Certainly when I requested permission to study their regalia, the local boss man gave me the address of the national headquarters who wrote back and said that it was up to the local membership to decide if they wanted to cooperate or not, but that they had no centralised information about regalia. Think it's much the same for membership...