List: Just an interesting aside on Germans in St. Louis. Most from northern Germany coincidently settled on the North side and visa-versa. During the late 1840s thru the 1870s, Germans settled 35% North, 50% South and 15% West StL. For you out-of-towners, Market St. is the dividing line between north and south sides. Gary Stoltman Mercerville, NJ ----- Original Message ----- From: "Georgia Clark" <georgia@corpsie.com> To: <MO-STLOUIS-METRO-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Thursday, October 23, 2003 2:03 PM Subject: Re: [StL-Metro] Religion Question > Dear Sherry, > > Using my German Catholics here in the Detroit area as an example, they settled with other Germans and attended churches that had since been referred > to as "German" Catholic. I think I read that with the increase in foreign speaking people, churches were started that had priests who could speak > German or whatever the language of the congregation was. This is for the Detroit area. > > From what I have seen of my Irish Catholics in St. Louis, they too, seemed to live in an "Irish" neighborhood and attended a church where (other > than Latin for Mass), the language was English. > > My mother-in-law's father was German and raised Evangelical/Lutheran but when he married his wife who was Scottish, he must have joined the > Presbyterian church since that is what my mother-in-law was raised as. When my mother-in-law lived with her in-laws, the family attended the > Congregational church. My husband said that as children, they, too, attended the Congregation church because it was the closest one to their house > and they didn't have a car. In later years, my in-laws belonged to the Presbyterian church in Louisville. I don't know why, if it was because they > lived closer to that particular church, or the neighbors belonged to it or my mother-in-law wanted to return to the religion of her childhood. > > My neighbors who immigrated here from Yugoslavia drive somewhere between 20 & 30 miles to attend the Orthodox church on the east side of the Metro > Detroit area. > > My opinion would be that you would more likely find people who were "Protestant" joining a Protestant church that was not the denomination that > they were raised in rather than see them join a Catholic or Orthodox church which happened to be in the neighborhood and that Catholics and Orthodox > would seek out a Catholic or Orthodox church to attend even if it meant travelling a distance to attend church or having to wait for a missionary on > horseback to make the rounds. > > Georgia > > Sherry Corder wrote: > > > Does anyone know how people used to "choose" what religion that they wanted > > to believe in? Was it simply a matter of whatever church happen to be the > > closest or within walking distance? I see that some of my family members > > attended a certain denomination of religion and the when they moved to > > another area their religion choice or choice of church was different. > > > > Was there that enough of a difference back then that would make people > > actually travel further to go to another church verses going to one that was > > closer and more convenient for them to attend? > > > > Just curious. > > > > Thanks > > Sherry > > > > ==== MO-STLOUIS-METRO Mailing List ==== > > Search the Archive of Messages for MO-STLOUIS-METRO Mailing List at http://listsearches.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/listsearch.pl?list=MO-STLOUIS-METRO > > > ==== MO-STLOUIS-METRO Mailing List ==== > To ask for a lookup or volunteer to do acts of genealogical kindess, visit Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness at http://www.RAOGK.org. >