Religious Ancestory

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One poster in a thread on Mary mentioned one of the responders had a “French” surname. So I got to thinking, what religious affiliation were some of the posters on the forum?

My family on my mother’s side fled France prior to the Declaration of Independence as they were Huguenots. They landed in Virginia about 1760. Some of them settled there but others moved to South Carolina. Most became Baptist. During the Civil War one of my ancestors joined the Sociey of Friends and became a conductor of the Underground Railroad.

On my father’s side, my ancestors left Ireland in the late 19th century…they were Irish Protestants. They also moved South and joined the Holiness Church and Church of Christ.

My grandmother’s brother was a Holiness minister. My dad has a few tales of attending “snake handler churches”…he didn’t know it when he arrived at the church…but when the rattlesnakes came out of the bag onto the floor…he knew then and promptly left.🙂

My family “branched out” to Nazarene, Pentacostal and Catholic…I was convinced a Friend at 19, and have attended Friend’s Meeting since then, with a few years attending the Mennonite Church when there was no Friend’s Meeting locally. I am now 53.

I was just interested in the Journey others have made to their current faith tradition.
 
Ooooh, fascinating! I love this sort of thing.

I come from a spectacularly Protestant background. Distant ancestors lived in the Plymouth colony. Distant Irish ancestors converted to Church of Ireland so they could get ahead socially and educationally, and I have lots of distant Scottish Presbyterian ancestors. One of my great-great-grandfathers in the US was an intinerant Baptist preacher who roamed from town to town across the south, doing revivals. My dad was raised Presbyterian back when the Presbyterian church in the US was still uncompromisingly, severely Calvinist, and he credits that with his eventual collapse of faith. My mother’s paternal grandfather’s family was Baptist, but he got angry with the Baptists because they were a bit too judgmental of his alcoholic brother, so he switched his family over to the Episcopalians. That is the denomination in which my mother was raised. As a small child, my dad proudly considered himself a “free thinker” (and raised the three of us that way) until he decided he wanted some spirituality in his life. In true 1970’s style, he went through all kinds of weird groups including Scientology and The 4th Way before letting my mom convince him to just go be a good little Episcopalian. He insisted that I come to church too and get confirmed. By that time I was 14 and deeply resented being told to believe something completely different from how I had been raised.

I am in the process of converting to Catholicism, and I think I will probably be the first Catholic in any of my family lines in at least 250 years, and much longer than that in most cases.
 
They were almost all Orangemen. My grandfather would not have let a Catholic water his horse at the trough.

And, for those who don’t know, Protestant Irish are typically called Orangemen, for William of Orange, who ruled the isle as British king (William III) along with his wife Mary after defeating the Catholic army of James II. There is a Irish/Scottish Protestant fraternal organization, the Orange Order, which excludes Catholics, but the term is more generally used.

Another bit a trivia. Ever heard the phrase “hotter than Billy be damned.” Well, that refers to William of Orange as well. The Irish Catholics work on the assumption that whichever part of hell William has been assigned must be the hottest part available. 😉

There are few Catholics on my mother’s side. Her father’s people came from Switzerland and were Catholic there. When he married my Baptist grandma, however, they raised their children Presbyterian.

And nobody was offended when I converted and raised my children Catholic. As a whole, the family is very supportive of any faith one chooses to follow. I was lucky . . .
 
My parents are from Lebanon and I was born and raised in Sydney, Australia. There are plenty of other Maronite Catholics here in Sydney. The World Youth Day Cross and Icon of Mary will be visiting Maronite parishes on Palm Sunday (Our Lady of Lebanon, Harris Park) and Good Friday (St Charbel, Punchbowl). Not bad, aye? Come and visit us!

[SIGN]Aussie! Aussie! Aussie![/SIGN]
 
My dad is now a member of a small Pentacostal Church in So. Calif. Most of the members are around his age…70-75, and they still “sing the old gospel songs” that he grew up with.

He’s commented to me that we have Irish Quakers back in our family in Ireland…but he can’t remember their names…he wishes I weren’t a Friend and would attend a “good Bible church” but he respects my beliefs…and I his.

My mom’s sister went through RCIA some thirty years ago and joined the Catholic Church. Her four children were all baptized Catholic…she was the only “official” Catholic on my mom’s side of the family. My mom’s youngest sister has an affinity for Catholicism…once in a while she attends a Catholic Church, but has no interest in joining…she really likes the liturgy and the beauty of Catholic worship. She came with me once to a Friend’s Meeting…and had to get up as her “butt went to sleep” as she put it.🙂
 
My ancestors on my father’s side were Scottish, and they became Presbyterian when they were forced to convert from Catholicism in 1560. They came to Calgary in the late 1800s.

The church they were attending became part of the United Church of Canada in 1925.

Part of the family moved to Lethbridge, and some of them became Mormons, while the rest of them remained in the United Church of Canada.

On my mother’s side, her parents were in a mixed marriage - her mother was Methodist and her father was Baptist. Her cousins on her father’s side are Baptists even until now, although I don’t know which branch of the Baptists they belong to. (I am forbidden to discuss religion with them, because apparently they are rather excitable on that subject.)

My mother and her sister were raised Methodist until they came to Canada, which was when my mother was just starting high school. At that time, they joined a United Church congregation that has Methodist roots. (Just up the hill from where I live, actually.)

My mother switched to my Dad’s church when they got married, and that’s where I was raised and attended until I became Catholic in 2001.

In the neighborhood where I grew up there was a Baptist church, and my brother and I went there for Vacation Bible School in the summer time, because there was nothing going on at our church during the summer. My best friend in college (who is still a good friend of mine) was (and still is) a member of the Plymouth Brethren, and I used to attend Bible study with her during my college years and for a little while after that, as well, so I was quite influenced by their beliefs, as well.
 
My research has convinced me that a lot of my recent American ancestors were Catholic on arrival but they, their children or their grandchildren switched at various times for unknown reasons. I hope it was usually out of sincere conviction another religion was right and not for convenience or under duress, but I can’t do anything about the past. Some were apparently Protestant but I don’t know what kind. It’s very hard for me to imagine any of us were ever Calvinists or Anabaptists but I can’t seem to find enough documentation to be sure either way. When I was born Mom was an atheist and I don’t know my father. My GM was an atheist. Now she seems to be open to thinking about religion. I gave Catholic gifts to Mom and GM for Christmas and they love them. My brother became a Baptist in adulthood and so did an uncle. I have a Unitarian aunt. Mom was following a guru on TV a while ago.
 
I come from a Protestant background. My grandmother (my dad’s mom) died when he was in high school and my granddad remarried. His second wife (who I grew up knowing as my grandmom) was Catholic as well as her family. In fact, one of her daughters is a nun (a step aunt, in a matter of speaking).
 
The first ancestor in my family tree died in 1380. He is in the church records in England as “old father Robert Chase”. Catholic, of course. A coulple generations later, an ancestor was burned at the stake for blasphemy to the faith-some sort of early protestant. Gruesome stuff in those days! They didn’t mess around! First ancestor in America arrived with the John Winthrop fleet in 1630 at Boston. Puritans all. He was put in the stocks for driving oxen on Sunday, and banished from the colony for bad-mouthing the preacher. They also didn’t mess around. That sentence was not carried out, however. Good thing-it would of meant certain death, and I wouldn’t be here! Those Puritans were just nuts! Didn’t even allow observance of Christmas until after the rev. war. It was against the law, for goodness sakes! My line later became Quaker, then Presbyterian for good. (or bad)…Roanoker
 
My recorded ancestry only goes back a few generations, as family records were lost in various church fires. Only thing we know is a family legend of a connection to both Ann Boleyn and the Duke of Marlborough. Oh, and some dude named “Adam”.

From what I gather, my father’s father’s clan all originated in English Protestant stock, but at one point, a male lax Protestant ancestor married female staunch Catholic ancestor, and family line did a detour.

My father’s mother was born to a Protestant family, but her mother died when she and her many sibs were young, so she was actually raised by a Catholic neighbour.

Mom’s father comes from old Irish Catholic stock – oddly enough, his name was William (even more oddly, William was a common forename among Catholics, even Irish ones, where I came from). Mom’s mother was Methodist, and her father was an Orangeman. When my grandmother started courting my grandfather, her sisters gave her hell, almost literally: they said they’d rather see her dead and buried than wed to a Catholic. They gave her such abuse that her father told them “leave the girl alone.” (You know it’s bad when an Orangeman tells you to lighten up on the Catholics.)

John
 
My mothers religious ancestory were conquerers,here in the americas, they came from the now ancient ruins of tenotichlan what is today Mexico city. My ancestors were very religious in the arts of nature. Sacrafice was common place among our peoples. What many do not understand about our human sacrifices, was that they were meant for the benefit of all. Many of our warriors and virgins sacrificed their lives willingly, without hesitation, knowing their sacrifice was for the benefit for all. We knew already what our diety wanted, human blood and a life sacrificed.

My fathers religious ancestory were conquerers also, they introduced to my indigenous ancestors a God who already sacraficed his own Son Jesus. Jesus went willingly to be sacrificed for his people. What sufficed the Diety was his Sons own blood and life for all men. Then Jesus gave us his blood and body to eat. This fulfilled alot of our already in existance religious ceremony and prophecies. It came although at a hefty cost of prideful life on both sides. And when the female diety revealed herself with child to our peoples, 9 million of our peoples converted to What we come to know as Roman Catholic Church.

From here, my blood line comes from a long line of Priests, and religious. Here in the U.S alone my family has 3 Priests, living, and One nun is Chloistered in State of Washington, another is a Franciscan nun in Europe.
 
My ancestors were primarily from England and Germany so they were, with one exception, Protestant.

The exception was my paternal grandmother’s ancestors, who were from Bavaria. My grandmother’s family required my grandfather to convert before they would agree to the marriage. He did, and his mother converted when she was about 75!

My mother is a convert, my wife is a convert, my wife’s only sister is a convert, and two of my sister-in-law’s children married Catholics and converted.

In addition, five of my eight siblings spouses also converted. Two of the other siblings married Catholics.😃
 
My father’s side is mostly Irish, with a little Native American mixed in. My mother’s father’s were Italian (actually Sicilian). That is my Catholic side.

The Irish side was Protestant, like IrishAm’s.

Ironically, my Mother’s Mother’s side were Dutch/French. We can trace that side to William of Orange himself!! Just my luck, my line was kicked out for marrying a commoner. Oh well.
 
My immediate family are the first Catholics in the line since Henry VIII got tired of Catherine of Aragon. Everyone came stateside Anglican/Episcopal; later somebody in there converted to Mormonism and was fruitful and multiplied, so there’s a whole branch of Mormons. I think I may be the first confessed agnostic – at least in recent memory.
 
Questions like this have always fascinated me. Luckily I grew up with a mother who does genealogical research so much of this information about our family and religious practices were known to me growing up.

I seem to be the only Catholic in the family since the Reformation.

The earliest German ancestors mostly hailed from the Rhineland. On my father’s side there were some Huguenots, that at one point seemed to have fled to France to avoid religious persecution. On my mother’s side her German ancestors came from what is now west-central Germany and they seemed to have mostly been Mennonites. Her Swiss ancestors were also avowed Mennonites.

My mother also has some Scottish ancestry. I’m not sure about their religious background. They arrived in America via Ireland (after expulsion from Scotland by the English). By the time they got to America some of them were Quakers.

The Huguenots from my father’s side eventually ended up as Bretheren, which he was raised in. My mother was raised as Evangelical United Bretheren, which in the 1960s joined with the Methodist Church and United Church of Christ (?) to form the United Methodist Church. I was raised in the UMC.

ChadS
 
My ancestors were Malay natives who were forcefully converted into catholicism by the oppressive Spanish conquistadors. Forceful conversions: they ensured the survival of Catholicism. The ends justifies the means?
 
AgnosTheist said:
My ancestors were Malay natives who were forcefully converted into catholicism by the oppressive Spanish conquistadors. Forceful conversions: they ensured the survival of Catholicism. The ends justifies the means?
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Many of my ancestors were forced to convert away from Catholicism to various Protestant sects. And many other people were forced to convert to Islam. And the pagan Romans forced people to pay tribute to their state gods. And some pagans made human sacrifices to satisfy their gods. The ends justify the means?
 
Father’s father’s side" Canadian Scots Presbyterians. Grandpa
married an Irish-American Catholic and the kids were raised
Catholic. To my very great frustration I cannot trace the family
back beyond the late 18th Century. They were not living on or
anywhere near the traditional lands of their clan.Very many of
the clan in question remained Catholic and I have grave suspicions
about great-grandpa’s original religion. His wife (of the same clan)
is rumored to have played the organ in the Catholic Cathedral
in Montreal.

Father’s mother: Irish apparantly from Co Limerick and Catholic.
Strong suspicion that the family had been Protestant.

Mother’s mother: all Germans and mostly Catholics, except that
great-great-grandpa married a Protestant and I don’t know how
the children were raised. It seems to have been common in
German mixed marriages for the boys to have been brought up
in the father’s religion and the girls in the mothers. This may
explain how my great-grandfather, not a religious man from all
accounts, got to be buried in a Catholic cemetery.

Mother’s father: one line, in America since c. 1750, German
Catholics and in PA, so they could practice their religion.
Another, Anglicans from London. Another: Irish Catholics
from Co. Cork.

Edmac
 
Ancestors were a various mix of American Protestant. From Plymouth Puritans to Huguenots to Society of Friends to Unitarian. A bunch of them converted to mormonism. Others were Anglican and converted to mormonism in England and moved to the US to be with the mormon saints.

Prior to all the Protetstantism, they were Catholic. Prior to that they were pagan.😃
 
On my mother’s side our history is Roman Catholic, as her father came to the US from Italy, and her mother was first generation Italian. In the entire family on that side, there is only one person, a cousin, who is no longer Roman Catholic as far as I know.

My father belonged to the Church of the Nazarene, as did most of his family, but converted to Catholicism in order to marry my mother. That didn’t last too long, as they divorced when I was six. Eventually he moved to Florida with most of the rest of his family, and in his final illness he rejoined the Nazarene church. His parents joined the Nazarene church early in the last century. Since that denomination was established in 1895, I believe, I don’t know what most of the earlier ancestors were, my hunch is that they they might have been Methodists, since the Nazarenes sprang from the Holiness movement in the 19th century. I know that their parents were Nazarene, so they must have been some of the first. However, a large part of their ancestry is German, so I might be wrong about the Methodist part. So basically my religious heritage is Catholic and Church of the Nazarene, but I have always been Catholic and was raised strictly in an Italian Catholic culture.
 
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