Your Religious Heritage

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JustaServant

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What is it?
Not the denomination or church you attend now, but the religious affiliation your family is connected to and you were raised in. Your parents or grandparents.
Both sides of my family were Catholic. But I have a feeling my mothers side might have been Orthodox or even Jewish in the past.
What was your family’s reaction when you cut yourself off from that heritage?
 
On my Dad’s side…not sure…my great grandfather came from Ireland at the end of the 19th century…don’t really know what our “Irish” name was…he changed it to “Dunham” to make the trek to America…he boarded in Dunham England…so took “Dunham” as his last name…when he got settled in the States and opened his clock and radio shop…it was changed again to our present last name…not Irish sounding at all…my grandfather was raised Baptist and my grandmother was raised Church of Christ…my dad attended the Pentacostal and Nazarene bodies when he became an adult. My dad’s twin sister said there were Quaker relatives still back east we had lost contact with.

On my mom’s side…her family arrived in Virginia in the early 18th century escaping from the wave of Huguenot persecution in France…so originally Huguenot…before the Civil War broke out, those who remained in the South became Baptist and those who joined the “abolitionists” were “convinced” Friends or joined the Methodists…I had one Quaker aunt I knew of that lived in Montana.

When I became a Friend…I seached out Quaker relatives…only found one in Tennessee…he was a professor at Friends University before retiring.
 
Interesting fact about the Irish and the Quakers Publisher I found out.
Many Irish converted to the Society of Friends in the 19th century because, the story goes, only the Catholic Church and the Quakers came to the aid of starving Irish during the potato famine.
 
JustaServant said:
Interesting fact about the Irish and the Quakers Publisher I found out.
Many Irish converted to the Society of Friends in the 19th century because, the story goes, only the Catholic Church and the Quakers came to the aid of starving Irish during the potato famine.
Click to expand...
Yes I read that too…My dad said we had Quaker relatives back in Ireland…he just didn’t know who they were…my great grandfather was something of a “cad”…“ladies man” and really enjoyed clothes, women and alchohol…but made no profession of being a Friend…or anything else as far as we can tell.
 
Mine is pretty complicated. My dad’s side of the family is staunchly Lutheran; at least that’s how he grew up, and my grandparents are still very much Lutheran. My mom’s side of the family is all Mennonite and I think a few Amish in that family too; that is how she grew up. My mom and dad became evangelicals when they were in college, so my dad broke away from Lutheranism and my mom from “Mennonite-ism” and eventually after they married and gave birth to me, my two brothers and my sister we eventually were catechized in the Presbyterian (PCA) church and were raised with strong Calvinist leanings. When I got into college I became an agnostic for a while and then eventually converted to Catholicism. My dad didn’t like it, nor does he to this day, and my mom was actually pleased with my conversion because, from her point of view, I am a faithful Christian who loves Jesus.
 
My mother’s family is Methodist. My father’s family is stout Presbyterian. I was baptized Methodist and raised Presbyterian. Sat with my parents and Grandparents until we left. Still a little uncomfortable on the family front, not something that we talk about over dinner.

It was very hard to leave my former church, separating the family is a tough thing to choose. Fortunately, we have gained so much more than we could have imagined.👍
 
My Dad’s side of the family is descended, in part, from Henry the 4th of France, so it went, Catholic, Huguenot, then back to Catholic (Paris is worth a mass). I’m pretty sure the rest of his ancestors stayed Catholic. My Maternal Grandfather was raised Catholic, but fell away from the Church and converted to the Methodist Church when he met my Grandmother. Mom was raised Methodist, but converted back to Catholicism when I was five. Mom’s sister also converted to Catholicism, and her brothers are Episcopalian and Methodist, respectfully.
 
My mother was Catholic, as were her parents (Mary and Joseph - how’s that for irony?) I believe.

Father’s side all Protestants.

I was raised Catholic, although we (just my mother and I, father and brother never went to any church) generally only attended church on holidays. I did make communion and confirmation though.

Since we didn’t attend regularly, there wasn’t much of a reaction as I drifted away. But I think my mom was kinda dissappointed and spiritually lonely after that, having no family members to share her Catholicism with.

It’s odd, even though I drifted away, even though my beliefs pretty much keep me an outsider looking in, I still tend to think of myself as a Catholic. It’s hard to shake a “heritage” instilled in you from birth I guess 😉
 
100% Roman Catholic.
All my family, for generations, has always been Roman Catholic. But then again, it shouldn’t be surprising since we’re Italian.
My parents converted to Pentecostalism before I was born.
 
JustaServant said:
What is it?
Not the denomination or church you attend now, but the religious affiliation your family is connected to and you were raised in. Your parents or grandparents.
Both sides of my family were Catholic. But I have a feeling my mothers side might have been Orthodox or even Jewish in the past.
What was your family’s reaction when you cut yourself off from that heritage?
Click to expand...
On one side my mother’s family was Jewish and Protestant (not sure which denomination. The Jewish side is kind of completely buried at this point. My great-grandparents hail from Germany and they defected to Canada at the start of the war. My mother’s parents abandoned the faith when they were just young adults).
On the other side my father’s family have been Protestants for as long back as we can trace. Staunch anti-Catholic Protestants that hail from Europe.

MOST of the family have stuck to the Protestant heritage but in a very mainstream, nominal Protestant kind of way.
 
Both my parents were Catholic.

My mum’s mother’s family came from Ireland to England and brought their Catholicism with them. My Nan met my granddad in Blackpool Tower at a dance in the 20’s! He was from staunchly English protestant background. His family cut him off when he became Catholic.

My dad’s mum is from an English Catholic background - Catholic all the way back. My granddad on this side was also protestant from Liverpool. His father was the Grand Master of an Orange Lodge. Again he was cut off when he married my grandmother.
 
Thickly protestant by blood-so protestant in fact my biological grandparents souldn’t set foot in a Catholic church if their life depeneded on it.

I’m adopted, and was raised by Catholics in a large Irish-Catholic family.
 
Both my mother and father were raised Catholics.

My mother’s parents both were Ashkenazi Jews who converted to Catholicism as young adults. Theirs was an interesting household. Growing up I assumed everyone’s grandma talked to Jesus in Yiddish.

I know nothing of my father’s family; he died when I was small and I never had contact with them.
 
My parents joined a Pentecostal church when I was 4 or 5, but before that my father’s side was Church of Christ, and my mother’s side (among whom I was raised) Southern Baptist, with a couple of Methodist black sheep. Back in more prosperous times (pre-1865), many of my mother’s forebears were likely Episcopalian.
 
JustaServant said:
What is it?
Not the denomination or church you attend now, but the religious affiliation your family is connected to and you were raised in. Your parents or grandparents.
Both sides of my family were Catholic. But I have a feeling my mothers side might have been Orthodox or even Jewish in the past.
What was your family’s reaction when you cut yourself off from that heritage?
Click to expand...
Cradle Catholic – both sides. German mother; Polish father.

In my maternal grandmother’s family, she had a Hungarian Jewish great-grandmother who converted to Catholicism in order to avoid persecution, and married Catholic.

And the odd thing is I cannot eat meat and dairy together – the only one who finds it sickening since childhood to mix meat and dairy.
 
I am a cradle Catholic on both my mother’s side (Portuguese) and my fathers ( English South African)
 
My family have been Catholic for over 1000 years stretching back to the time St Patrick converted the Irish.
 
My father was from Utah so he was raised in the LDS faith and he converted to Catholicism after marrying my mother.

My mother is from the Philippines and was a staunch Catholic.

I was raised as a clueless Catholic. With everything in the Philippines being Catholic, I believe the influence of the culture helps helps keep everyone Catholic. Unfortunately, I was raised in the US and didn’t have that culture to keep me strong in the faith. She figured that going to Mass on Sundays was sufficient.

It wasn’t until I married my LDS wife and was challenged by her and the LDS missionaries that I figured out my Catholic heritage and fell in love with my Catholic faith. I’m sure it’s not quite what my wife hoped for though…:rolleyes:
 
My paternal heritage has been traced back to 1715 in England or Virginia. Protestant all the way – lots of Protestant ministers – and a French Hugenot great great grandmother. My father refused to marry my mother unless she left the Catholic Church. She became a Southern Baptist to please him, and remained staunchly Protestant for years. They were both very ANGRY when I became a Catholic, but attended my reception into the Church. A miracle occurred then and there – the Holy Spirit fell on my rabidly anti-Catholic father. Long story short, he became a Catholic and my mother returned to the Church after a 30-year absence. Deo gratias!
 
Well I was raised by my grandma and grandpa. I was raised Catholic went to a Catholic school. My mom and my two aunts and uncle were also brought up the same and they left the church high school.
The only time my family goes to church is Easter and Christmas (depending on their mood)
They dont like me to ask them if they want to go to mass. They find it boring.

My dads family are just Christian they attend some nondenominational church.

Im the only practicing Catholic in my family. If I miss a Mass they freakout. I missing Mass means they missed mass. Its weird.

Thats my religious heritage. lol
 
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