Your Religious Heritage

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Catholic on my father’s side both the English and German branch, back into as far as the family can be traced, 16th century. Maternal grandfather born into a Catholic German family but was not raised in the faith and never expressed adherence to any faith. Maternal grandmother Methodist back to her English roots, my mother was a convert. We were all raised Catholic and went to Catholic schools but only a couple of us still practice the faith, and the one who is nominally Catholic still refused to convalidate his marriage. However there is hope for the sister who married a Baptist, sone of a minister, and she may bring some of his family with her as she returns to the faith. Yeah, rosary, works every time. She started making rosaries, now praying it, and her relatives have asked for rosaries and crucifixes.
 
My mom’s Catholic, always been that way. My dad, deceased, was born and raised Methodist, but converted to the Catholic Church when he married Mom.

On dad’s side, most everyone was Methodist, if I remember correctly, including my grandparents from that side, whom I never met. On Mom’s side, my biological grandfather was a Jewish rabbi, who was promptly kicked out of his family and social circles when he met my Catholic grandmother, staunch Irish Catholic. My foster grandfather (who has just always been Papa G. to me, just like Mama G., since I never met my biological grandfather either) is Catholic as well.

I had a brief stint away from the Church of about 8 months while pursuing the affections of a non-denom Christian gal, and then came to my senses and came back, and there be my heritage.
 
As far as we’ve traced it it goes like this.

My Father’s said goes back to the 1500s in England at the earliest, and the son of this first ancestor was on the mayflower so I assume they were Puritans and fled England. This line remains consistently Puritan until the 1700’s when it appears they became Church of England.

My Mother’s side goes back to Germany in the 14th century at the earliest in Meissen. During the 7 years war they fled to Austria when the Prussians conquered Saxony, but they returned to Saxony after the war when Saxony was again a free state. Finally when a revolution broke out in Saxony in the 1830’s my ancestors finally fled Saxony and came to the US, and this is where the Catholic side of my family comes from.
 
My mom’s family is Catholic. My dad’s side is some form of Protestant (I think United) but dad converted to Catholicism so they could attend church together.

My mom thinks I’m an atheist, but in her mind, only Catholics and Protestants exist. It’s very frustrating for a religious studies major.
 
Mom’s family, for the last few generations, is Nazarene. Dad’s is a mix of Presbyterian, maybe Methodist, maybe Nazarene. They aren’t members of any denomination. I’m that, plus a lot of Reformed. I was thinking about becoming a Calvinist until I found out about Catholicism.
 
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.
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You might be interested to know the Choctaws, recentently having suffered from starvation during the forced relocation from their lands by law, gathered a few hundred dollars and sent it to Ireland. Some Irish people retraced the Trail of Tears in recognition of the Choctaws generosity.

pantherfile.uwm.edu/michael/www/choctaw/retrace.html

Sarah x 🙂
 
atheistgirl said:
You might be interested to know the Choctaws, recentently having suffered from starvation during the forced relocation from their lands by law, gathered a few hundred dollars and sent it to Ireland. Some Irish people retraced the Trail of Tears in recognition of the Choctaws generosity.

pantherfile.uwm.edu/michael/www/choctaw/retrace.html

Sarah x 🙂
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This is interesting. My momma’s gramma(?) was part Choctaw, and we’ve visited portions of the Trail of Tears.
 
I don’t know about my dad’s side of the family. I know that my one aunt goes to a protestant church, but don’t know which one. I don’t know if my dad has ever gone to church. Kind of tells you what kind of relationship we have.

My mom was raised Mormon. I was blessed as a baby in the Mormon church. When I was about 7, my mom had a falling out with the church and started taking us to different churches; Baptist, Methodist, Church of God, Church of Christ, 1st Church of the Nazarene, etc. We got bebopped around alot.

My mom’s mom and dad chose to be Mormons as adults. I don’t think my grandpa had a good growing up experience although I know that his mom when I was young went to the Holy Roller church. Don’t remember the name of it, though. I just remember them showing that movie about the Rapture and it scaring the living daylights out of me. Made me want to NEVER go to that church again!!!

My grandma, mom’s mom, is the funny one. She chose to be a Mormon as an adult, but half of her siblings are Catholic. Turns out that they weren’t raised Catholic, but there was a school run by Catholic nuns and priests and they taught the poor kids in the town. So, since her older siblings went to that school, they ended up becoming Catholic. But, by the time my grandma was old enough for school, they had moved somewhere else. I don’t know how they all stayed Catholic after moving away, but the nuns must have done a good job since they all stuck with the faith.

So, I am going back to my roots as I see it. I know since my grandmother is into geneology that I am German, Dutch, Irish, English, French, and Blackfoot Indian. Somewhere in there, there have got to be Catholics. 😉

My hubby on the other hand comes from a Cradle Catholic dad and an Episcipalian converted to Catholicism mom. He was raised and still is Catholic.
 
Mormons, both sides, one side for several generations. Ancestors converting to Mormonism from a wide variety of American Protestants, Quakers, English Episcopalians, Norwegian Lutherans, etc. Religious background is as “Heinz 57” as my roots.😃

Different family members have different reactions to my conversion to Catholicsm. Most, it’s not a big deal, others make odd remarks every time I see them. 🤷
 
RebeccaJ said:
Different family members have different reactions to my conversion to Catholicsm. Most, it’s not a big deal, others make odd remarks every time I see them. 🤷
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Ya gotta love the awkward comments, don’t ya? Hate to miss an opportunity to embarrass everyone within earshot.:banghead:
 
Hmm,

On my Dad’s side I’ve got: JW, Evangelical, and a lot of irreligious.

Mom’s side: Baptist, Evangelical, and a bunch of “whatever church I feel like going to today”.

As for me the line would go: Nothing (until my family started attending a community non-denom church), Evangelical (7yrs), Nothing (1yr), Episcopalian (1yr), and Catholic in April (Indefinitely :D).

The first church that I attended by my own choosing/free will, was a tiny Episcopal church on the other side of town. All the parishioners were wonderful people and I ended up being Baptized there. However, as my relationship with Christ and my understanding of early Church teachings developed, I knew I couldn’t stay in such a liberal church. When I attended my first Mass a few months back, I felt something that I had not experienced at any previous church, the best word that I can pluck from my lexicon to describe this experience is, Tranquility. I know evangelicals (I’m surrounded by them) would say that it is because of all the pomp and circumstance that one might experience this, but the Episcopal parish that I used to attend was quite a bit more traditional in it’s practice than my current Catholic parish is.

I’m adding way more to this post than I originally planned and am on the cusp of rambling, so I’ll stop here… 😊
 
Cathh(name removed by moderator) said:
So, I am going back to my roots as I see it. I know since my grandmother is into geneology that I am German, Dutch, Irish, English, French, and Blackfoot Indian. Somewhere in there, there have got to be Catholics. 😉
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I think we’re related! 😃
I emphasize with your story about the “Rapture” film, at least from my sister’s point of view; she was always strangely (I thought) terrified of that event, and what made it worse was that it was very commonly mentioned in our household. What scared ME was the first time we went to an evening service at a Reformed church…I hadn’t realized that they say the Apostle’s Creed every Sunday night…I thought it was a cult! 😛
I guess I have come a long way?
 
Cathh(name removed by moderator) said:
So, I am going back to my roots as I see it. I know since my grandmother is into geneology that I am German, Dutch, Irish, English, French, and Blackfoot Indian. Somewhere in there, there have got to be Catholics. 😉
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One thing I learned going into my own genealogy was how unusual it was, prior to the 20th century for people to marry outside of thier nationality, let alone thier religion. Especially for immigrants. Their communities were tight.
 
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?
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My mother’s mom was Greek Orthodox and her father was Catholic. She grew up more in the Orthodox faith, but she has a brother who is a Catholic priest.

My father’s side is Assyrian Church of the East
 
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