What religion are/were your ancestors?

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This has given me the shivers too (positive) ANP, for the first time in my life I was searching Ancestors during the holiday break on Dad’s side and discovered that his great grandfather was chosen by the Catholic Church in Dorset? to travel out as a farm hand with his wife and four children among some other families by the Parish Priest. I am fairly sure it was Dad’s great grandfather and still researching.

Apparently many Australians not all from Convicts who had stolen (many in all probability may well not have been guilty as many from Catholic families and Churches and in those days strict knowing not ever daring to steal or thieve)! There are lists and lists of names referred by Catholic Priests over in Dorset for Ships destined to Australia back in the 1800’s and early 1900’s. I came across these letters written by Parish Priests in the U.K that an Australian guy has on record in Sydney from family history done.

Many many Catholics from all over the world came here on Ships sent by their Parish Priests.
 
Maternal grandparents: Jewish (non-religious. atheists? never discussed specifics.)

Paternal grandma: Roman Catholic. How religious I don’t know. She sent the kids to Catholic school though so probably fairly religious.

Paternal grandfather: I don’t know. probably non-religious.

Mom: Jewish (atheist)

Dad: raised Catholic, lifelong atheist

me: agnostic atheist. Mom exposed me to some Judaism when I was a kid. Went to temple, learned some Hebrew, learned about the holidays and the history of the Jews. When I was 5 or so I told her I didn’t believe in God but she made me keep going till I was 9. Then she let me stop.
 
Samiam, Why do atheists/agnostics join CAF? I don’t know you and haven’t noticed your posts but having been on CAF for a number of years, it seems most of them are either trying to show us the ‘error of our ways’ annoy us or get some kind of jollies out of saying nasty things about our faith.

Maybe you have a different reason? I’m truly curious. I have been on a non-denominational forum that had no Mods so it was a hateful free for all. I wouldn’t join an atheist or agnostic forum.

Turning this back to the thread, I’ve noticed a number of people who had no religious upbringing or like me had an anti-religious upbringing who later converted. I hope you will join us!

Lisa
 
Phemie said:
My entire family, as far back as I can tell, have been Catholic. My paternal great-grandparents, my paternal grandparents, my maternal grandmother, my parents, my first two kids and I were all baptized in the same parish.

My dad was an altar server, for the same priest, from the age of 12 until he married at age 39. He became an EMHC in his 60s and started serving for daily Mass once he retired. He stopped his various ministries in his late 70s when it became harder for him to go up the steps to the sanctuary. He was a Knight of Columbus in his early years but the local Council disbanded before I was born. He rejoined when a Council was re-established after I’d moved away from the village.

Mom was devout but wasn’t a joiner - her devoutness expressed itself in how she raised us, taught us our prayers, made sure we all got to Mass and did all we needed to. She even helped me teach our oldest her prayers when we were posted close to home.
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What an absolutely beautiful story and what a blessing to be raised by such parents!

Lisa
 
Protestant, mostly CoE or SDA. There may be Catholics and Jews there as well. Today the family is mostly made up of unaffiliated, non-practicing Christians and former SDAs.
 
anp1215 said:
I’m truly amazed that you know all this!
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lol!!! hehehe! Well, I was one of those weird kids who was actually very interested in my family history (and history in general), so I was known to ask a lot of questions. My family was very obliging and I hung out A LOT with my grandparents to find out more about our family who was long gone. I would spend hours with my grandmother looking at old family photographs and asking her about each person in the pictures. I absolutely love old letters and anything that has to do with the past. I always thought it was important to know about your past in order to understand who you are/were as a person. It also helps to make changes in how you lead your life so to not to repeat mistakes. Some people always want to just “get with the times” and forget about history and the past. I’ve never been like that. I love tradition and the history that goes along with it. Ok… well that’s enough of my dorkiness.
 
As far back as we know which puts us going back to the 1700s we have always been Catholic. Not all are practicing but until my generation all remained and now some have left for various reasons. My husband’s family is about the same. His brother went from Catholic to Assembly of God to Baptist and his daughter was baptized Catholic but after her mother died he married a lady from the Assembly so his daughter never attended a Catholic church again. Our kids have remained Catholic - can’t say they attend Mass like they should but I know they won’t switch. My family comes from Spain/Canary Islands and his family is from France and both families have been in Louisiana since the 1700s.
 
Sarabande said:
lol!!! hehehe! Well, I was one of those weird kids who was actually very interested in my family history (and history in general), so I was known to ask a lot of questions. My family was very obliging and I hung out A LOT with my grandparents to find out more about our family who was long gone. I would spend hours with my grandmother looking at old family photographs and asking her about each person in the pictures. I absolutely love old letters and anything that has to do with the past. I always thought it was important to know about your past in order to understand who you are/were as a person. It also helps to make changes in how you lead your life so to not to repeat mistakes. Some people always want to just “get with the times” and forget about history and the past. I’ve never been like that. I love tradition and the history that goes along with it. Ok… well that’s enough of my dorkiness.
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I am exactly the same actually. Only, I’ve never been close with my grandparents or most of my family so I’ve never been able to ask many questions.
 
Interesting thread. Just a while ago in church I was thinking about my family tree and how probably majority of the predecessors were not Catholic. And now this topic. Praying for the healing of my family tree.

my paternal grandfather - Buddhist
paternal grandmother - don’t know
maternal grandfather - Catholic
maternal grandmother - Catholic

All before them I don’t know. Except for my maternal grandmother who was born here, my three other grandparents (RIP) were refugees.
 
An interesting topic!

I am a convert from being Greek Orthodox. Delighted to be Catholic!

My father and his parents were Greek Orthodox.

My mother was baptized Greek Orthodox. Her mother was a non practicing Catholic and her father was Greek Orthodox whose father back in Greece was the village priest. This marriage caused a huge upheaval and caused my grandparents to be shunned by their family of origin.
 
Roman Catholics as far as anyone remembers, which is pretty long; my great-grandma tells stories of a couple of generations before her, I can’t pin down exactly. The country where i grew up is super Catholic (at least in name…) so it’s quite expected.
 
LisaA said:
Samiam, Why do atheists/agnostics join CAF? I don’t know you and haven’t noticed your posts but having been on CAF for a number of years, it seems most of them are either trying to show us the ‘error of our ways’ annoy us or get some kind of jollies out of saying nasty things about our faith.

Maybe you have a different reason? I’m truly curious. I have been on a non-denominational forum that had no Mods so it was a hateful free for all. I wouldn’t join an atheist or agnostic forum.

Turning this back to the thread, I’ve noticed a number of people who had no religious upbringing or like me had an anti-religious upbringing who later converted. I hope you will join us!

Lisa
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I don’t want to derail the thread so I’ll keep this brief.
If you click on my posts you will see I’m not one of those nasty atheists. A little sarcastic every now and then but never hateful.
It is unfortunate that there are rude people like that out there and I’d like to give you the opportunity to get to know me so you will see we’re not all like that. 🙂 Feel free to PM me.
I joined CAF to try to understand the Church’s teachings on birth control, NFP, and having children. (I am an antinatalist.) I did extensive study before joining and knew the teachings (though still had a lot to learn) but was perplexed as to why people followed them. 😊
Then I became more interested in the philosophy forum on here so that may be why you haven’t seen me before. I enjoy discussing the [im]possibility of there being a God ;), faith vs. reason, and that sort of thing. I enjoy dialoging with those whose beliefs are so starkly different than mine.

The likelihood of me joining your faith is slim to none but thanks for the invitation. 🙂

And now back to your regularly scheduled programming. 😃
 
anp1215 said:
I am exactly the same actually. Only, I’ve never been close with my grandparents or most of my family so I’ve never been able to ask many questions.
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Nice to meet someone like me. 😃 I’m sorry you were not able to be close to your grandparents and other family. (I wasn’t close to my mother’s parents, but I got a lot of the information on that side from my mom and aunts.) Thanks for making the thread. It has been interesting reading people’s religious lineage.
 
Mostly Catholic but some were Orthodox. One was supposedly the leader of some kind of conservative resistance against the catholicisation of Ruthenia. Plus a couple of Muslims. Ends in pagans like with most people. 😉
 
I’m pretty much made of pasta and potatoes. Both of my families are Catholic but my mother’s side has always been the more religious. My maternal grandmother’s mother (an immigrant from Italy) had some of the faith taught to her by Mother Cabrini! 🙂
 
Kit15 said:
I’m pretty much made of pasta and potatoes. Both of my families are Catholic but my mother’s side has always been the more religious. My maternal grandmother’s mother (an immigrant from Italy) had some of the faith taught to her by Mother Cabrini! 🙂
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That is really cool!
 
Pretty straightforward as much as I know…

Mother: Catholic
Father: Catholic convert from Judaism

Maternal grandparents: Both Catholic
Maternal great-grandparents: All Catholic

Paternal grandmother: Nominally Jewish, now agnostic
Paternal grandfather: Orthodox turned reform Jew, died probably agnostic

Paternal great-grandparents: My grandmother’s parents were nominally Jewish but practicing communists and therefore hostile to all religion. My grandfather’s parents were orthodox Jews but moderated over time. Their children all moderated to the point of basically being socially Jewish.
 
My father is Catholic and was introduced to Catholicism as an adolescent.

My mother is a Catholic but until she met my father, she leaned towards Protestantism. I don’t know which denomination (she doesn’t know exactly what herself) but probably, Baptist.

My maternal aunt is Catholic but there is some element of superstition in her practice like fortune-telling and medical treatments. It annoys me that my mother has been influenced by this. Her husband is either a Buddhist (judging by his side of the family) or agnostic.

My aunts, uncles and one cousin are Catholic or at least, open to attending Mass once in awhile.

My grandmothers converted to Catholicism on their deathbeds. As far as I can tell, everyone from that generation or before were pagans and worshipped just about any deity at the local temple or were indifferent to religion. I don’t know about my other cousins or distant relatives but they probably fall in the same category.
 
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