I've indexed many hundreds of lodge or other fraternal notices found published in Milwaukee's German language newspapers from the city's early history through the last daily edition paper I've indexed for death notices or obituaries from 1950. Many of these clippings are calls to members to gather before a burial or wake. Some of these notices are found where there was no local family, or the family didn't publish a death notice.
Help in identifying participation by a lodge or other fraternal org. will usually be acknowledged in the family's thank you notice following the burial. An article about the burial event may even include the names of pall-bearers. That's where a lead on the family church will also be found (through the burial officiant's name).
When found during the indexing process, all of these types of clippings are identified in the local resource: "Milwaukee's German Newspapers; an index of death notices and related items" (1844-1950).
gary.rebholz@gmail.com, originator/compiler/editor, Milwaukee Wis.
Indexing Milwaukee's German newspapers continuously since 2007... helping family researchers collect evidence contemporary with their historic German-American families.