10 March 2010

Fearless Females: Day 10

Today's prompt for the Fearless Female Women's History blog challenge is:

March 10 — What role did religion play in your family? How did your female ancestors practice their faith? If they did not, why didn’t they? Did you have any female ancestors who served their churches in some capacity?


I was raised Episcopalian, a compromise between my mother's Methodism and my father's Catholicism. My mother was active in our church's Altar Guild when I was growing up.

My paternal ancestors were Irish and German Catholics. My great-grandmother, Maggie (KENNEDY) KAIN, had a sister who was a nun. Julia KENNEDY became Sr. Mary Baptista, BVM. She died when she was only 27 years old. I believe my paternal grandfather, John HUIGENS, also had a cousin who became a nun. She was part of the HAUGENS branch of the family from central IL. According to her obituary, my paternal grandmother, Julia (KAIN) HUIGENS, was a member of St. Mary's Altar Society at the Catholic church in Rushville, NE.

On my mother's side, there were Baptists, Lutherans and Methodists. My maternal grandmother Esther (JOHNSON) OGDEN's obituary says she was active in women's groups in the Methodist churches to which she belonged.

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