✅ SOLVED Help Identifying a Fraternal Symbol on a Ring

Wavydavy67 · Mar 11, 2015

I was going through a box of items belonging to my grandparents and I came across a ring with a red triangle containing what looks like the letter A at the beginning and the end and some other symbol in between. Anybody recognize this? Thanks!

nhbenz · Mar 11, 2015

Welcome to TreasureNet!
To my surprise when I searched AKIA (the middle is a K and I overlapped) it turns out to be a Klan logo used in the 1920's (I don't know how much earlier or later). Apparently it stands for A Klansman I Am. Interesting piece of history.
Other items with this symbol can be seen in this search: http://www.google.com/search?q=anti...a=X&ei=BzUAVeDNMK20sASh5IHIAw&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAg

RichieRich · Mar 11, 2015

nhbenz said:
Welcome to TreasureNet!
To my surprise when I searched AKIA (the middle is a K and I overlapped) it turns out to be a Klan logo used in the 1920's (I don't know how much earlier or later). Apparently it stands for A Klansman I Am. Interesting piece of history.
Other items with this symbol can be seen in this search: antique fraternal akia - Google Search

great research

Mackaydon · Mar 11, 2015

nhbenz,
Great ID !!
as here also: KU KLUX KLAN 1920s ERA GOLD AKIA IN TRI LAPAL PIN STERL for sale
Don,...

DCMatt · Mar 11, 2015

Isn't the Klan a fraternity? I think they had a chapter at University of Oklahoma until recently. :censored:

SAE Fraternity Investigating Additional 'Racist Allegations or Incidents'

nhbenz said:
Welcome to TreasureNet!
To my surprise when I searched AKIA (the middle is a K and I overlapped) it turns out to be a Klan logo used in the 1920's (I don't know how much earlier or later). Apparently it stands for A Klansman I Am. Interesting piece of history.
Other items with this symbol can be seen in this search: antique fraternal akia - Google Search

Ant · Mar 11, 2015

I guess, I know they hang guys like me from trees or chained to the back of a pickup truck and dragged until they rip you apart ;(

Wavydavy67 · Mar 11, 2015

Thanks for the ID. Wow. Had no idea what it was, and now I'm sorry I do. I don't know which family member this belonged to, but I was able to figure out what a bunch of the other items were. The rest of the items in the box all related to the Knights Templar. Have to search through some old obits to find out who they belonged to. Not sure what to do with the thing now, but I sure as hell won't be wearing it!

aa battery · Mar 11, 2015

very interesting story

Ant · Mar 11, 2015

Hi WavyDavy. You only have to account for what you do not for what others have done, keep posting. Good Luck.

PS I can trace my US roots back to 1760, my crud family tree:

DCMatt · Mar 11, 2015

Wavydavy67 said:
Thanks for the ID. Wow. Had no idea what it was, and now I'm sorry I do. I don't know which family member this belonged to, but I was able to figure out what a bunch of the other items were. The rest of the items in the box all related to the Knights Templar. Have to search through some old obits to find out who they belonged to. Not sure what to do with the thing now, but I sure as hell won't be wearing it!

WD67 - I wouldn't lose any sleep over it. It is no reflection on you and whoever wore it is long since dead and buried. If you don't want the ring, put it on ebay. There are plenty of collectors out there who want these items.

DCMatt · Mar 11, 2015

Ant said:
Hi WavyDavy. You only have to account for what you do not for what others have done, keep posting. Good Luck.

PS I can trace my US roots back to 1760, my crud family tree:

Ant - That is awesome. You can go back farther than I can. I can only get back to about 1830. I suspect my family name was changed around that time but I don't know why or what it was before.
Just curious if your roots are in the deep south? I did research on a house in the New Orleans French Quarter a few years ago. Originally owned by a free woman of color. It was eye-opening to say the least!

DCMatt

trdking · Mar 11, 2015

I can go back to 1905 before it goes over seas. I am a newbie

Ant · Mar 11, 2015

Not meant to highjack the thread.

I'm fortunat that my family is from Louisiana because the Catholic Church kept records on whites, free people of color and slaves. I can trace my roots back to a valley in Xaintes, France.

The Old Man had a white wife and a slave woman. He had a female child with the slave and latter set them free. He gave the slave an equal share of his property in his will and before he died he set them both free. He also had a family with his white wife.

After his death they went to court claiming that the daughter that he had with the slave and her 5 children were their property. To make a longer story shorter she won the case because she was married in the Catholic Church and back then slaves couldn't get married. The Judge ruled that the Church record proved that she was a free person of color ( AKA Gens De Couleur Libres, in Louisiana).

SusanMN · Mar 11, 2015

Since we wandered into the area of genealogy, if you really want to get a handle on your family tree, do a DNA test . Not only do you get your ethnic makeup but you also get the names of others who haven taken the test and are related to you. Found my fathers biological father that way.

Wavydavy67 · Mar 12, 2015

Cool tree, Ant! Genealogy is actually one of my passions. I actually just did a DNA test for myself and my wife. Waiting on the results. We'll see if there are any surprises. We know my wife is multi-racial / multi-cultural, just not which ones. As for me, I'm not expecting any surprises...

Havefun · Mar 12, 2015

If you want to sell it there is a seller on iOffer: A Place to Buy, Sell & Trade called symwao that has something like 500 sales and all of his descriptions are lessons in history -seems to have a lot of knowledge of the field. That is probably a good person to sell it to and get a reasonable price.