Did your Canadian ancestor apply for life insurance with The Independent Order of Oddfellows (IOOF) between 1875 and 1929? The IOOF is one of the world’s oldest fraternal orders. These insurance records are a unique source for tracing your family history. You will find images of the original applications which include your ancestor’s medical history, family’s medical history, and a physical description. The applications are two pages long. Be sure to use the next arrow to move to the next image.
Did your Canadian ancestor apply for life insurance with The Independent Order of Oddfellows (IOOF) between 1875 and 1929? The IOOF is one of the world’s oldest fraternal orders. These insurance records are a unique source for tracing your family history. You will find images of the original applications which include your ancestor’s medical history, family’s medical history, and a physical description. The applications are two pages long. Be sure to use the next arrow to move to the next image.
Every result will provide a transcript of the vital details found in the original records. The images include even more detail about your ancestor. Every transcript will have a combination of the following facts.
Name
Event year
Birth year
Birth date
Residence
Province
Country
Policy number
Policy date
The insurance applications are two pages long. Use the next arrow to read the second page. The applications will include:
Marital status
Details about the individual’s Odd-Fellow membership
Medial history
The ages and state of health (if living) or cause of death of parents and siblings
Next of kin
Physical description
The records found in this collection are from The Independent Order of Oddfellows (IOOF) which operated a life insurance program through the Empire Insurance Company. Between the years 1875 and 1929, about 59,000 people took out IOOF insurance. This collection is not comprehensive, but we will continue to add more records. The IOOF insurance policies have been transcribed and digitised by the Ontario Genealogical Society.
The Independent Order of Oddfellows is one of the world’s oldest and largest fraternal orders. The fraternity has counted many prominent and successful individuals among its membership including Canada’s first Prime Minister, a number of US Presidents and first ladies, King George IV, English politicians, footballers, famous actors, and more. The first Odd Fellow lodge was instituted in Canada on August 10, 1843, in Montreal.