Family Religious History Chart

At my other, other blog, Church of the Acronym, I wrote about finding the Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture at Wheaton College. I had started out looking for a modern translation of Egeria's travel guide to Jerusalem (a fourth century Spanish nun), but you know how it is on Google--it's really a delightful surprise package. Anyway, in addition to reading assignments, quizes etc. in the course (History 483), "Christianity in North America from the colonial era to the present," there is an assigned paper (a few exceptions) in which the student develops a chart for four generations of her/his own family beginning with self, listing the religious affiliations of each family member as fully as possible and briefly noting other important religious/social data.

This would be a piece of cake for me: my parents, their parents, and their grandparents and some of their great-grandparents were all part of the Church of the Brethren (the name since 1908; earlier name was German Baptist Brethren, or Dunkards). Mother's German-Swiss ancestors and Dad's Scots-Irish ancestors were all part of the same faith family. Going back any further, things get a little murky. I know there were Mennonites and Lutherans on Mom's side, and Presbyterians and Methodists on Dad's. In the chart the student is to include important conversion or revival experience, if they were part of an acrimonious church split (the Brethren frequently split) and if they were part of an ethnic minority (wasn't everyone except the English?). Then the 2nd part of the assignment is to write a 12-15 page research paper placing some aspect of the student's religious family history in the context of broader themes in the history of American Christianity. If it were me in the class, I'd write about education, because the Brethren came later than most Protestant groups to the importance of education (it was worldly), but then squabbled about it and established printing presses, Sunday Schools, high schools and colleges. So my great-grandfather (David) learned only enough to read the Bible and do some math for his carpenter job, and his daughter (Mary) went to college--a huge jump in just a generation. His psalter was in German (he was probably 4th or 5th generation American), and she knew only English.

Can you track your family's religious journey four generations?