Your family's religious history

I don't have the full history of what occurred on my father's side, but I do have my mother's side of the family. Prior to her and my grandmother being Catholic, my great-grandfather's grandfather was a Jewish Rabbi - and my mother later became a Charismatic Evangelical. My grandmother was a part of the Bahai camp before coming out of that to be a simple follower of Christ, but she was very multi-religious in her views.

My ancestors were part of a wave of immigration from French Canada to New England - 900,000 between 1840 and 1930. My parents were Catholics who rarely attended Mass. I was the only member of the family who was religious and it's a lifelong obsession.

Cearbhall said:

What do you know about your family's religious history on different branches? How did it converge into the beliefs that your parents taught you? Do you know of family members who converted so that they could marry their lover? Was one of your ancestors forced to change their religious identity because of a change in leadership or legislation?

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This would actually be interesting to know but I don't know much. I know my dad's immediate family was Baptist in the mountains of North Carolina. My mother's side was religious but not sure of the denomination - grandfather came from Panama/Russia, where the rest of his side of the family had always been moving immigrating. I would think they would have been Orthodox. I saw a picture of my grandmother and it seemed to be Catholic, but it was years back. Unfortunately I was never able to know either side of my family (dad or mom) other than small knowledge and one or two meetings at most that I can remember.

Valsaex said:

If you want to go real far back, my ancestors (and most peoples ancestors) practiced ancient Paganism. In my adoptive family (I was adopted when I was born) both sides are Christian. They've been Christian for the last 2 generations I think. In this current generation most of my family is Christian, some are agnostic or atheist, and I'm the only Satanist as far as I know. I have no idea about my birth family and blood ancestors.

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So what type of Satanist are you? Do you believe in a being named Satan? If you believe in a being named Satan what is his personality? What are your religious practices?

EDIT: Oops, I saw you answered some of my questions in this other thread. I'm still curious about the personality of Satan and how he and his Demons fit into some larger pantheon.

Valsaex said:

Well I converted from Christianity to Satanism, I'm atheistic as I do not believe in any all-knowing creator god (monotheism), but I do believe in an actual Satan and His Demons. The transition was chaotic but I was simply following my heart, so it was an extremely happy experience. <3
Why would it cause psychological problems? Personally, no I haven't experienced any.

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Way back when my mom was still alive she did some genealogical investigation, my own very limited attempts largely resulted in the same sorts of conclusions as what I remember her telling me. When looking up the family tree on my mother's side (and then on my mother's mother's side specifically) I was able to get back to the early-mid 1700's colonial America. My grandmother's maiden name was Mudd, and while I have no direct relationship to Dr. Samuel Mudd, his line of Mudds and my grandmother's do seem to both go back to colonial Maryland and, later, Missouri. Based on that information it seems the most likely candidate are Protestant Scots-Irish immigrants from Northern Ireland, while there were Catholic immigrants in those early waves, they were a minority, and most were Protestant, usually Scottish Presbyterian. I'm not entirely sure about my maternal grandfather's history, though I remember my mom mentioning there were quite a number of Duncans in that family tree which I imagine might also point to a Scots-Irish (and likely therefore Protestant) ancestry. It's been nearly impossible to find out much about my paternal grandfather's line, though the fact that my paternal grandmother's family is/was Catholic and her maiden name having been McGrath seems to point fairly strongly toward an Irish Catholic lineage there.

-CryptoLutheran

I have some north African ancestry as well, so maybe some of my relatives were Muslim.

On my father's side, I'm mostly descended from the Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay colonists. In the 1600s, that was English Separatists and Puritans; in Massachusetts, they eventually became Congregationalists and then part of the United Church of Christ. On my mother's side, lots of Southern Baptists, with (maybe) some Methodists in the mix, the denominations that flourished on the American frontier. Some of my aunts, uncles, and cousins married people with other beliefs: one Christadelphian, one Christian Scientist, one Greek Orthodox, one Catholic.

Becoming Episcopalian was my own idea, a significant break from the Baptist and Congregational heritages of my parents.

Something I was just thinking is that many people get genetic tests to determine their cultural heritage. The problem is that populations have been mixing, so a person's genetic heritage would only show the cultural heritage prior to European imperialism and maybe not even that recently. Maybe I'm overestimating the genetic mixing?

cloudyday2 said:

Something I was just thinking is that many people get genetic tests to determine their cultural heritage. The problem is that populations have been mixing, so a person's genetic heritage would only show the cultural heritage prior to European imperialism and maybe not even that recently. Maybe I'm overestimating the genetic mixing?

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I thought the ancestry test only gives relevant results from around a 1000 years?

MehGuy said:

I thought the ancestry test only gives relevant results from around a 1000 years?

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Yeah, I haven't done it, but somebody I know just sent-off some of his DNA to be analyzed.

As an example, my maternal grandfather's family was culturally Scottish, but I believe they came from Germany to work in Scotland as miners (maybe in the 1700s or 1800s?). So the DNA would show German, but culturally they were Scottish. The DNA test would have me dancing in lederhosen when I should be wearing a kilt.

Surely it's just an indication of possibilities, though? And that's interesting in and of itself. I mean, as best I know, all my ancestors back a very long way hale from the western end of Europe, but if I found out there were other things likely mixed in, that would be interesting, even if it didn't give me all the details.

cloudyday2 said:

Yeah, I haven't done it, but somebody I know just sent-off some of his DNA to be analyzed.

As an example, my maternal grandfather's family was culturally Scottish, but I believe they came from Germany to work in Scotland as miners (maybe in the 1700s or 1800s?). So the DNA would show German, but culturally they were Scottish. The DNA test would have me dancing in lederhosen when I should be wearing a kilt.

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Yeah. I guess. Lol. Not sure if people are putting that much stock in DNA tests to understand their cultural heritage. Just for me, the knowledge that I have some northern African roots is interesting, because I could very well have Muslim ancestors.

The majority of my heritage is French and German with some Scots-Irish thrown in. One side of my family were French Huguenots (the only thing French about that side of the family these days are their names). Another was pretty much exactly what you'd expect regarding what we here in the US call Scots-Irish (Ulster). Another side of my family was from Germany and were Protestant (my grandmother and all of her siblings had very German names and were raised on a dairy farm). My uncles on that side married people of German Catholic heritage- which caused a kerfuffle back in the day.

I have a great-grandfather that was possibly Jewish (most people with that surname in that area were Jewish). All I know is that my grandfather was raised in a secular home and his father was well-respected in the local Jewish community (in South Carolina) and neither confirmed nor denied being Jewish. My great-grandmother was from Maggie Valley- right next to Cherokee- and her family wasn't excited when she married my great-grandfather. My grandfather became a Christian at a tent revival when he was in high school and later became an Assemblies of God minister- and that is how my mother was raised.

My father was not raised in church- but my grandparents sent him to Vacation Bible School every summer at a Baptist church within walking distance- and he was baptized there. My grandmother was raised in the Christian Church and my grandfather was raised in a similar church started by his great-grandfather. Neither were religious- honestly.

My husband's family were all Swedish Lutherans- though his parents somehow got into the Christian and Missionary Alliance at one point (my FIL is now Orthodox). My husband's grandparents didn't learn English until they went to school and used Swedish when they didn't want their kids to know what they were talking about.

ETA: Anyway- I was raised Pentecostal (A/G). If you want to know why I'm now Orthodox- feel free to go read my one blog post here.