Question of the Week: What religions did your ancestors practice? [closed]

+25 votes
2.4k views

What religion or religions did your ancestors practice? Please tell us here or use the question image to answer on social media. Thanks!

in The Tree House by Eowyn Walker G2G Astronaut (2.4m points)
closed by Chris Whitten
My ancestors were followers of the Religious Society of Friends, a.k.a. "Quakers". The religion was founded in 1630and my  oldest discovered male ancestor, Robert Ellis,  was born in 1650 in Northern Cymru. By 1670 he had resettled at the Quaker controlled manor of Tyddyn y Garret in Merionshire, Cymru, where he met Ellin Doe. During 1690 the couple and their children relocated to the "Welsh Tract" in Pennsylvania because of religious persecution at the hands of the English n their homeland. "We" became known as "the family of Robert", or "Robert's". Over time some the family members became Kirksite Quakers and started  the family's westward movement  in the United States where some became Mormons, or, as in my branch, chose other religions.
My oldest paternal ancestor emigrated to America with the Puritans in 1630, but he was a not a Puritan, rather a reformist dissenter who still adhered to the Church of England.  Around 1665, he and most of his family converted to Quakerism, and they were prominent Quakers in Long Island when the sect was not well tolerated by the local authorities. Quaker meetings were held in their homes and the Quaker influence spread up the Hudson River. After the Revolution, Quakerism seems to have been replaced by the Episcopal Church, later Methodism, or whatever church happened to be closest to home and farm.  That lasted until the mid- 20th Century.  Other branches of my family were German Lutheran and Irish Roman Catholic.
Puritan, Dutch Reform, Swiss Brethren, German Brethren (anabaptists), Calvanist, Lutheran, Church of England, Huguenot, Baptist, Presbyterian, a few Society of Friends. Most of my ancestors were persecuted for their religious beliefs and it was a major factor in their immigration to America.
many presbyterian scots chose to move from their homes rather than convert to the religion of their landlord or superiors in the 1800,s
Paternal side is Baptist (Protestant).

My Maternal Great Grandfather who came from Northern Ireland to Eastern Ontario in 1873, was Presbyterian and my Grandmother followed her father's path.  She married a member of a militant Irish Protestant group. There were often comments made regarding an uncle who had married a Catholic.  When I began researching the family upon arrival from Ireland in 1818, I discovered that my 3rd and 4th Great Grandparents were very involved in the Catholic Church, including being founding members * of the first Catholic Church in Eastern Ontario (circa 1825). It was only when my Great Grandma met her husband in the 1870's that GG converted and married in the Presbyterian church. It is my belief that my Grandma never discussed her family's religious origins in an effort to maintain Peace in her own home.

*Another interesting tidbit is that my Birth Family were staunch Methodists and are on record as trying to Stop the building of this very Catholic Church! My Birth Family VS My Adoptive Family!! It was amazing to read.
My paternal ancestors followed some form of Protestantism.  They originated in The Netherlands but were German  My maternal ancestors followed Catholicism as residents of southern Germany.
My adoptive mother never knew her maternal grandparents as Her mother Annie was disowned when she , the daughter of a staunch Orange man  married a Roman Catholic ( who as also older than her father!)

Sadly Annie's husband  died just after the 8th child in 9 years was born and she was dependent on Poor Law Aid. The Poor Law Board asked if she had any relatives and she informed them about her father saying he had disowned her. Shortly afterwards she was awarded 10 shillings a week to bring the family up on and pay the rent.

When the oldest boy passed to go to Grammar school he was told he could not go as there was no money for the books and uniform he would need.He wrote to his grandfather c/o Staffordshire Police ( as he as a Police officer) and the grandfather Alfred Hall got in touch through a solicitor. Upon finding that Annie was only getting the 10 shillings he was paying weekly he told the Poor Law Board to leave matters to him and thereafter paid a guinea a week until the youngest reached 21 years of age.

He gave the princely sum of £5 to Bill who had written to him to  ask for a loan pay for the uniform and books.

He refused to ever see Annie and her children and when he died many years later they were not mentioned in his will ( he left a considerable estate)

As a child growing up  I became aware of the harm that religious bigotry could do
Your info and research is terrific. Thank
My paternal grandfather was a Pentecostal  (Assembly of God) Minster.  He found his calling at a tent revival in California, he then started ministering to people on Skid Row in the 1930's then he and my grandmother were Home Missionaries.  They built and started several church's in Bartlett,  Beloit,  Olathe  and  Girard   Kansas.
My father is the (if I have this worked out right) 2nd great nephew of Charles Haddon Spurgeon, he was a Baptist Preacher in the UK in the 1800s.

My Quaker ancestors Thomas Thomson and Elizabeth Wharton married in England ca, 1635.  They raised two boys ( it seems a third died) and after the boys married they all migrated to Ireland probably to escape the persecution of the Quakers in England.  After about 12 years the two boys, John and Andrew and their families emigrated to .colonial America arriving in West New Jersey on the Mary of Dublin in 1677.

WikiTree has a file on them.  It goes to an Andrew b. 1677 who married Isabel Marshall.  They had a son Andrew (2) and the WT file ends there. I have more info on his descendants taken from Quaker files.

Andrew (2) about 1696 married Rebeckah Pedrick.  Their children are:
     Jonathan, b. 1697; Hannah, b. 1699; Isabel, b. 1700; Andrew, b. 1704.

He married 2nd Grace?.  Their children were:
    Sarah, b. 1709; Abraham, b. 1710; Joshua, b. 1713; and Thomas b. 1715.

Thomas b. 1715, m. 1st Mary Hanes and 2nd Deborah Oakford.  He and Mary had: Daniel, b. 1737; John, b. 1741; Joshua, b. 1743; Thomas, b. 1745; Sarah, b.. 1747; Mary, b. 1749.

Thomas b. 1745 d. 1798 age 53 probably Phila. m. Sarah ?.  Children:
    Martha b. 1770; John, b. 1772; Rebecca, b. 1773; Susanna, b. 1775; Thomas, b. 1777; Peter, b. 1779; Sarah, b. 1782 d. 1786 age 4 yrs; Mary, b.  1784; James, b. 1786 d. 1786 age 3 weeks.

    Sarah the mother, Sarah the child and James all died in the summer of 1786.  Thomas married again Amy? b. 1756 d. 1811.  One child Joshua b. 1790.

    (I have more on this family but will put it elsewhere.)

Martha, b. 1770,  is my 3rd ggm.  She married first a Davis. It was a short marriage of only a year.  2nd she married Roland Cromwell, Capt of a ship that went between Puerto Rico and Phila.  Although Martha had been disowned, she and Roland had a “friendly wedding” officiated by John Wilkins Justice of the Peace Gloucester NJ. Sept 18 1793.  I inherited letters from Martha, her father, Thomas Thomson, and her husband and the original wedding document.  I donated them to the Quaker Library at Swarthmore Colege for safe keeping.  They were all written in 1793.  There was also a string bound notebook in which was written the names of the children listed above.

Martha’s’ daughter married John Hanley Lyons and the Lyonses were Scotch Presbyterians, however the Quaker heritage was so strong that therir granddaughter Martha Frances Lyohs was educated in a Quaker school.

The Thomsons are on my mother’s side.  On my father’s side were also some Quakers but I know little more than the name Hayhurst.  I do know that a family by that name came to PA colony 1682 on one of William Penn’s ships but the name of it is not given. My Hayhursts lived in Bloomsburg, PA and I can only assume that they are connected.

Continuing my father’s side we have the Ungers who were Methodists from Eastern Europe, Hungary/Germany depending who you ask. There is a family story that these people were farmers and had little education.  However one of them, Daniel Pierce Unger, could read and expound the Bible so they “apponted” him pastor and raised a small log church on one of the famlily farms.  After he married he moved to Bloomsburg and joined the Medthodist church there.  When the pastor could not be in the pulpit Daniel would be asked to fill in.  His daughter and my grandmother, Jessie, told me stories of how the family had to be quiet and reflective and not engage in any amusement on Sundays.

Another story Jessie told me that when the "Cakewalk" dance fad came along she and her brother in law won a prize ifor doing it the best in a dance contest. She got a searing letter of disapproval from Quaker Grandma Hayhurst.

My parents did not follow a religion, in fact, my father was a confessed atheist.  However, as a child, my mother sent me to the nearest church so that I could walk there.  It was Baptist.  As I grew up I developed my own ideas on religion and spent 20 years in the Catholic church.  When the Charismatic Movement hit the Phila area I attended a local prayer meeting where I met the Lord and from then on it was not a religion but a relationship with God.

I moved to VA in 1997 and after some time joined a small undenominational church which actually was established by some distant Garrett cousins related to ones in PA from whence I came. Now I just call myself a Christian.

Spurgeon was a great man and well known to this day! You are blessed!
I think this went to the wrong thread,  I do not know who Spurgeon was.

Barbara Hays
As a Quaker myself, I can assure you that the Society of Friends was founded around 1650, not 1630. George Fox, the founder, was born in July of 1624.

73 Answers

+9 votes
My first ancestor in America was a Puritan in Governor Winthrop's Fleet. My 3g grandfather became a Quaker. There were also Congregationalists, Baptists and one Roman Catholic, my Irish grandmother
by Jerry Abell G2G2 (2.8k points)
+7 votes
My maternal side is mostly Roman Catholic.

My paternal side is more interesting?  Tricky?  Haha. I'm not aware that my dad's side was really "faith filled."  I should ask again.  I haven't since starting working on family trees and history.  

Recent DNA tests show that I inherited some ashkenazi jewish genes from my father, so that's pretty interesting.  i told my grandmother (his mother) and she didn't flinch.  I'm going to bring it up again, but also, i'll be testing her soon.  See if it came through her, or by process of elimination, my grandfather.
by Caroline Verworn G2G6 Mach 9 (90.6k points)
I looked at your tree, and on your grandmother's side there are some German names not so far back. I'd bet a box of donuts on that being where your Jewish ancestry is coming from -- unless it's something very substantial (like 25% of your DNA).
haha.  mmmm, donuts!  This is where i'm guessing it would be coming from too.  I'm ~13%, and my dad tested at about 26% i think.  i dunno, something along those lines.  I'm going to test my grandmother next, so I can confirm if from her or not.  What I find most interesting, is my dad isn't "jewish" nor my grandmother... etc and so on.

I mean, i realize it's possible being from Europe blah blah... buuuuut, for it to be such a high percent, why wasn't anyone practicing?  There's a story there, got to be... and I want to find it!
Jewish DNA is pretty distinctive, as they were breeding within a very small community for over a thousand years. If your dad was 26% Jewish, he has one completely Jewish grandparent -- that, or both his parents were a quarter, and he inherited 12.5% from each of them.

If no one is practicing and no one has an obviously Jewish name, the obvious (if possibly upsetting) implication is that there's an NPE: either a grandmother had an affair, or a baby was adopted from a Jewish family and never knew it.
+8 votes
My mother's ancestors were evangelical Lutherans who left Germany around 1848.  They settled in the US mid-west as missionaries and farmers.  A great-grandfather of mine, who was a Lutheran minister, became a biblical scholar, lost his faith in the doctrine of the Trinity, and became a Unitarian.

My father's ancestors were English protestants who emigrated to Ontario in the mid 1800s, and Scottish protestants who emigrated to the US, also in the 19th Century. My great-grandparents from the Ontario branch moved to Iowa and became Unitarians.

My parents met in the First Unitarian Church in Davenport, Iowa.
by James Mason G2G1 (1.2k points)
+7 votes
For generations my paternal line were all Quakers.  There was an unofficial family tradition of being disowned by the church for bad conduct and then acknowledging and rejoining later in life.  My great grandfather was the last Quaker in my line.  He ran away from home at 16 and lied about his age to join the army (there was no war going on, it was just an escape).  I like the joke that he died (TB at 31) before he had the opportunity to rejoin, and that's why I'm not a Quaker.
by Tim Varney G2G6 (7.7k points)
+6 votes
Methodist, Quaker, Anglican, Roman Catholic
by Jacquelyn Sankey G2G Crew (380 points)
edited by Jacquelyn Sankey
+8 votes
I have all manner of protestant Christians in my tree.  Among the PA Quakers there are many Mennonite and Brethren ancestors, and a few Huguenots, Lutherans (even a Scots-Irish Lutheran),  Presbyterians and Catholics. The last round of intermarriage between Brethren descendants and Quakers occasioned rounds of out of unity and apparent reconciliation.

My children have Quaker cousins from a line stretching back to Essex Co Mass witch trials (4 of my own direct ancestors were imprisoned, one died; there was definitely a religious side to it).  

Descendants of my Puritan clergy ancestors became Unitarian, with a few Quakers in the same family, and eventually some Episcopal on the other side of my family.
by Tim Prince G2G6 Mach 5 (54.6k points)
+7 votes
Fun question! Raised in South Louisiana Cajun culture, I assumed that both sides of my family were mostly of Acadian ancestry. Not so!

My paternal ancestors were primarily of French Acadian heritage. Because of their church records, and the clergy who devoted their time to preserving them, how fortunate we are to trace these ancestors back to 17th century Acadie/Canada and further to 15th century France. All Catholics!

Because of Wiki, I was able to connect my maternal side to early Methodists in South Louisiana, then further up the tree to the East Coast, I found that my 9th great grandfather, Peter Hobart, was a Puritan minister! Educated at Cambridge, he left England to settle in Massachusetts and was minister of his church for 44 years.
by Janice LeBlanc G2G2 (2.3k points)
+7 votes
My mother’s most recent ancestors were Church of Ireland, but I assume before that were Roman Catholic. My father’s paternal side were Lutheran and his maternal side mostly Baptist.
by Robin Hagen G2G1 (1.2k points)
+6 votes

My ancestors on my mother's side were from Denmark and Sweden. Several of them converted to the LDS Church and moved to settle in Brigham City, in the Great Utah Territory, circa 1850, during "The Danish-Mormon migration to Utah in the nineteenth century," which "was, relative to population size, one of the largest European religious out-migrations in history." (See [https://uofupress.lib.utah.edu/danish-but-not-lutheran/]) 

My mother and her first cousin, Donna Smith Packer (both, of Brigham City, Utah) are Daughters of the Utah Pioneers. Donna married the late Boyd K. Packer, who became one of the most senior Apostles in the LDS Church (a few heartbeats away from becoming its President). They were both descended from a Pony Express Rider named Rasmus or Erastus Julius Smith (previously Sorensen). My mother was married to my father in the Salt Lake City Temple by the LDS Church's founder's grandson, Joseph Fielding Smith.

Although I am now, like my distant cousin, William Mortensen, apparently was, a godless heathen, we are both descendants of these Danish converts; both, Sons of the Utah Pioneers; and both, born in Utah. He was born in Park City, and I was born in Brigham City.

My father was raised a Methodist in Chicago, but he studied zoology at Utah State University, in Logan, Utah, where his landlady was a Mormon, so he eventually converted to Mormonism, served an LDS Mission in Australia, and, as I mentioned above, married my mother in the Salt Lake City Temple, where they were "sealed" by Joseph Smith's grandson, Joseph Fielding Smith.

by Living Vaughan G2G6 Mach 2 (27.4k points)
+7 votes

My ancestors were mostly Congregationalists from Massachusetts but Unitarian and Universalist had some interesting inroads into the Congregational beliefs.  A friend of mine just wrote a book about it.  http://www.lulu.com/shop/james-w-gould-and-david-e-schrader-and-david-s-martin/origins-of-unitarian-universalism-on-cape-cod-and-the-islands/paperback/product-24350529.html

by L. Ray Sears G2G6 Mach 5 (50.7k points)
The first were Puritan. I also had Quaker in Virginia. My Puritans were from England and they evolved into Methodist, which is my own Faith. My gggg-grandfather, Jonathan Barnard was Centenarian and married Obedience Bridget Barnett who was Quaker. My ancestors on my mother’s side were Scots/Irish but appeared to have been Protestant. Most of my ancestors were from Europe though I do have some West German and Scandinavian. The also have a bit of Native American.

Forgot to mention my McDowell Presbyterians...
+7 votes

My ancestors on my mothers side are almost exclusively Mennonite.  This is true all the way back to the 1600s. I know nothing about my fathers side. 

by
You may be distantly related to my husband, William Hoover, Jr. (Previously Huber in Europe) whose ancestor were Swiss Mennonites.

My tree goes back to Francis Buckwalter born 1665 in  Alsace-Loraine

Georgiades is a Greek name, and most Greeks are Greek Orthodox.
My grandfather on my fathers side was Greek. My grandmother on my fathers side was Dutch. But all we have about that grandfather is the manifest of the ship he arrived in. We aren’t even totally sure of his birth date. My fathers family wasn’t particularly religious. He became Baptist in his 20s and we’ve been that since. I’ve often been asked why I’m not Greek Orthodox. Just because lol
Well, historically your ancestors have likely been Greek Orthodox since the Byzantine period. People probably ask you about it because Orthodoxy is very ingrained in Greek culture and is part of their identity as a people. Something like 97% of Greeks to this day belong to the Orthodox church, there are only small minorities of other religions in that nation.
+7 votes
My ancestors practiced Christianity, more specifically followed the teachings of Menno Simons. Currently known as Mennonites.
by
+7 votes
My ancesters on my father's side were followers of Caspar Schwenkfeld von Ossig (1490-1561) who was born in Silesia (Poland) and died in Germany. He was a contemporary of Martin Luther. Born a Roman Catholic, he had a spiritual awakening which led him to embrace the reformation tenets of Luther. But Schwenkfeld developed his own interpretation of the scriptures and subsequently had a falling out with Luther. The followers of Schwenkfeld were persecuted and eventually fled to Pennsylvania in a series of six migrations, beginning in 1731 and ending in 1737. One of the fascinating aspects of the Schwenkfelders is that they recorded and maintained the genealogy of the sect, and continue to do so to this day. When I was about 11 years old my grandmother showed me a massive book, which turned out to be the Genealogy of the Schwenkfelders, mostly since arriving in America. I trace my interest in genealogy to that day. So if you are interested, visit the Schwenkfelder Library and Heritage Center in Pennsburg, Pennsylvania.

And by the way, I also have an Anabaptist Martyr, Puritans, Mennonites, Calvinists and Mormons in my family.

Terrific question as many of our ancestors were driven to America because of religious beliefs.
by Katherine Wolfe G2G Crew (420 points)
+7 votes
Centuries ago, longer ago than we can trace with genealogy, my mother's maternal ancestors were Mizrahi, Sephardic, and Ashkenazi Jews of the mtDNA haplogroup J1b1b1. Due to persecution, they converted to Christianity, but it was the wrong kind of Christianity. Going back about 10 generations, they were Huguenots - French Protestants who were again persecuted by the Catholic Church. Then they finally moved to North America to find religious freedom. More recently, my mother and her ancestors were Methodists.

On the YDNA line, my paternal grandfather and his family were active in the Anglican Church in the Bahamas.

My husbands ancestors were Swiss Mennonites and German Anabaptists who also were persecuted for religious reasons. They also escaped by sailing to North America. Had our ancestors not escaped we might not be here to tell the story.
by Marion Ceruti G2G6 Pilot (351k points)
+5 votes
Good Universalist or GU
by
+7 votes
On my mother's side, most lines appear to be Roman Catholic (Irish, German), or Dutch Reformed, with one Lutheran line (German).  On my paternal side, Roman Catholic (Irish), and Presbyterian (Scottish), with some Dutch Reformed mixed in further back.  I'm sure I'll find more as I dive deeper.
by Heather Ford G2G3 (3.9k points)
+7 votes
To my knowledge, all my known ancestors practiced Christianity.  They belonged to a wide variety of denominations, however.  On my 3 Dutch sides, all but a handful left the Roman Catholic Church between 1550 and 1600.  In most cases their church buildings and property were automatically turned over to the Reformed Church in 1572 (Noord-Holland), the 1580's (Friesland) and 1596 (Groningen), and everyone became Reformed by default.  Some, of course, made sincere changes of belief; others "went with the flow".  A few became Lutheran in the 1570's and then Reformed around 1620 - all by decrees by the princes, dukes and counts (Overijssel). In one case, a Catholic boy married a Reformed girl around 1650.  They tried the Reformed Church for 10 years, then joined the Catholic church.  Their oldest son, baptized Reformed, remained in the Reformed Church but remained friendly with Catholic family and friends.  

There were also some ancestors who became Anabaptists (Mennonites) in the mid 1500's.  Gradually they all became Reformed - some before 1620 and some after that.  In one town (Giethoorn, Overijssel), most of my Mennonite ancestors moved to Friesland between 1770 and 1800 and joined Reformed churches there.  

By 1810, all my Dutch ancestors had joined the Reformed Church.  Then in the 1840's many of them broke away from a liberalizing Reformed denomination and formed a new, more conservative Reformed Church as time went on.  In one town, there were 3 newly formed conservative congregations.  The most interesting of the 3 was a community called the Mazereeuwers, after their founder Jan Mazereeuw.  They basically held to almost all the tenets of Reformed faith, but they did away with all formality.  No baptisms, no Lord's Supper (Eucharist), no church building, not even a planned sermon. Everything was casual.  Most people called them a sect.  They did read sermons written by Mazereeuw when he wasn't there; otherwise he just talked informally.  He had an obsession with the book of Daniel.  Oh yes, it was said that Jan Mazereeuw was the prophet of God and that he would never die.  When he died in 1855, members slowly fell away and joined the main conservative Reformed Church.

On my Colonial American side, my ancestors were an interesting mish-mash of Puritan, Quaker, Baptist and anything else Protestant in the neighborhood.   One of my immigrant ancestors was Puritan when some Quakers came to the colonies and were persecuted for their faith.  He wasn't going to put up with that, no sir!  So he decided to show the authorities a thing or two - he became a Quaker himself!  And a rather obnoxious one, if I read the stories correctly.  He got fined so many times for flouting the law as a Quaker that he couldn't afford to pay them.  His brother found an old obscure English law that allowed him to declare himself dead.  So his first house went to his older children, and when he really did die several decades later his younger children got the new house.
by Bertram Sluys G2G6 Mach 3 (37.1k points)
+7 votes
Church of England, Puritan, Huguenot, Dutch Reform Huguenot, Baptist, Quaker, Lutheran,   No Catholics in the US until last few years.  Before Church of England there might have been Royal Catholics involved, the religion was whatever the Vikings had prior to going to England and Kiev.  One of my direct ancestors was Gov. John Winthrop and that would  be Puritan.  My Cox (Cocks) family were Quakers and my ancestor Samuel Gorton started the Gorton group.  My Dragoo and collateral French families that came here were French Huguenots.  From those, various different Protestant denominations evolved and as far back as I can go in this country none of my ancestors were ever Catholic.
by Carol Van Sickle G2G Crew (410 points)
edited by Carol Van Sickle
The state of Maryland was established as the catholic state. That’s why it was named for Bloody Mary. Virginia was named for queen Elizabeth, the virgin queen. It was for Protestants and Anglicans.

Florida was Catholic early on because of the Spaniards. There was a tragedy when a boat of Huguenots landed in st Augustine and the Spanish slaughtered them.
+7 votes
My ancestors were from England, Scotland, Norway and Prussia. The ones from England were either Anglican or Non conformists. The non conformists create problems because they often had their own records and some have been lost.
by Denise Hunt G2G6 Mach 1 (15.7k points)
+6 votes
I was pleasantly surprised to find such good church records for two different families.  One was the church records for our Catholic family in Romania during the 1800's.  I found birth, marriage and death records.  The other family were Norwegians who came to America and the Lutheran church records were very helpful as well.
by

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