Maternal Chain of Events

More Stories of Ruth:

A Link in a Maternal Ancestry Chain of Events

Sometimes I think of something and, knowing the dangerous minefield of memory, write it out so it won’t be forever lost. This is such a ‘something’. This part of family lore is written solely for any interested in their heritage.

It is not clear to me whether either of my maternal grandparents were born in their ancestral countries, or which prior generation may have immigrated to United States. Following is simply an attempt to narrate what I do understand.

As somewhat vaguely remembered from stories my mother told, her father’s family (Burnett) was from Scotland, [For context, Scotland’s hero William Wallace of Braveheart fame is buried next to tombstone with surname Burnett.] Scotland was primarily a Presbyterian stronghold through 20^th century, and I was told my grandfather had been born into this Protestant denomination derived from theology of John Calvin (1509-1564).

Family of my maternal grandmother (nee Harrigan) was from Ireland. Ireland in the late 19^th century was an estimated 90% Catholic, and great majority of the immigrants of that era would have been born into Catholic Church. Few Anglo-Saxon groups were as poorly treated at the time as were the Irish. Hated because they were poor, uneducated, overwhelmed job market with unskilled labor, spoke in an odd dialect, and most atrociously for the time – they were Catholic.

Question: Given above, why was my mother not raised Catholic, which would have then been ‘required’ by the Catholic Church when one married a non-Catholic in 1904? And, by extension, why was I not raised Catholic myself?

Now must be mentioned completely American influences:

     I was raised in what we called the “Restoration Movement” tradition. Begun prior to the American Civil War, this movement birthed three denominations: Church of Christ, Disciples of Christ, and the ‘Independent’ Christian Church in which I was raised. The generally acknowledged ‘father’ of this movement was Scottish immigrant Alexander Campbell (1788-1866) who came out of my grandfather’s Presbyterian Church.

     Enter fire-brand evangelist Billy Sunday (1862-1935). As I understand the story my grandfather was “converted” at a Billy Sunday crusade (baptized in the Mississippi no less) and became a “Christian” sometime around 1900. As my mother told me the tale (once, when quite young), her father had ‘converted’ my grandmother – and later my father – to the Christian Church.

It was a long time ago, in a different world. I am, however, a link in this particular ancestry chain. As for me this is where the chain ends: more Calvinist than Arminianist, more watchman than pedagogue, more philosopher than theologian, more historian than philosopher, and more articulate than verbose. How’s that for a link to the stories of Ruth?