David My deepest sympathy. My mother and all her family were RC. My fathers family had strong Presbyterian roots They were prevented from marrying for I would guess 10 years before the 2nd world War. They married in 1943 in the Parish Church in Thornaby. I was born in 1944. I would guess that the families met infrequently to be polite but I have records of only one occasion. I was welcomed by both sides and was unaware of the significance of the problem until I started this research. My mother attended my fathers family events rarely but occasionally. After my fathers death in 1957 I was looked after by both sets of grandparents, each in their own way. I think my father's parents entered our house rarely, maybe twice. Conflict was never an issue to me my mother changed from RC to anglican at the same time as I was confirmed in the late 1950s. I attended an anglican junior and infants church school but an open scout troop and a secondary school that was 98% anglican / protestant. I have no real concept or understanding of the difference between the two christian religions which I regard as minor differences of the same thing and certainly not worth fighting about. I suspect that most people today would have the same view but if the conflict was Christian / Muslim then there might be some indication in that potential friction to give us a lead in to past disagreements. I hope this helps you Doug Kyle On 28 Apr 2007 at 19:11, David Allan wrote: From: "David Allan" <davidm.allan@ntlworld.com> To: "Rootsweb - Durham & Northumberland" <DUR-NBL-L@rootsweb.com> Date sent: Sat, 28 Apr 2007 19:11:26 +0100 Subject: [DUR-NBL] Catholics marrying non-Catholics... [ Double-click this line for list subscription options ] I'm having a problem at the moment in trying to work out the religious leanings of my great grandparents and their children on my mother's side. It appears that my great grandmother was very much of the Roman Catholic persuasion, but not only married someone who was not a Catholic, she married him in an Anglican church. As I understand it, as a Catholic, if you marry in an Anglican church, the marriage is not recognised as such and you are effectively 'living in sin'. This is not some archaic situation... this is actually how it still works today! If such a marriage were to end with divorce, the Catholic would still be free to marry in a Catholic church, because as far as the Catholic church is concerned, they were never married in the first place! I reckon that my great grandmother must have been overflowing with guilt. My great grandparents had nine children and I have discovered that the first four children were all baptised in the Anglican church. Still searching for possible baptisms of the other five. What I really need to know is whether there is anywhere that holds records of people who have become converts to Roman Catholicism? Has anyone else tried to follow up similar lines of research? I am also interested in hearing accounts of people who have come across family conflict caused by Catholics marrying non-Catholics. This Catholic/non-Catholic dilemma may be partly at the root of some unexplained family fall-outs that seem to be lurking in my own ancestral shadows. My latest research has shown that my great grandfather was baptised at the Catholic church in Tow Law three years before he died in 1914. However, when he died, he was buried in the Anglican church cemetery at Byers Green, Co Durham. His wife, my great grandmother, died some years later and was buried in the Catholic cemetery in Willington, Co Durham, in an unmarked grave at her request! Regards... David Allan. ==== DUR-NBL Mailing List ==== To Post a message to this list send it to, DUR-NBL-L@rootsweb.com ==== DUR-NBL Mailing List ==== List Web Page http://www.communigate.co.uk/ne/durhamgenealogy/index.phtml ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to DUR-NBL-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message