Disclaimer - Fact and Myth Often Coincide in my Brain
Let me first say that I'm still practicing telling these stories. Since they're coming through me now, instead of others, their accuracy may or may not be spot-on, but I'll try to get as close as I can.
If something here is glaringly wrong, please let me know. Nicely. I'll fix, if it needs fixing, or I'll make a note that I'm human and not always right. Which is kind of what I'm doing right now as well.
In short, don't believe absolutely everything you read online. Just good commonsense advice.
I'm a second-generation Mormon, and happy with my choice. My parents joined in their early 20s, before they met each other.
My Dad's Conversion Story
My father's family was Presbyterian, officially, but they didn't seem particularly religious, especially as they grew older. When the children were young, they went to church schools. My father joined the military, and met someone who was LDS who influenced him in that direction. His aunt Kathryn Dilley had joined the Mormon Church many years earlier, and sent missionaries to teach her brother and his wife.
My grandparents decided not to join when they learned about our law of paying 10% of all our earnings (tithing), but my father joined after he became an adult.
My Mom's Conversion Story
My great-grandfather, Clinton Harvard Stockwell, and his family were members of the Church of No Name, and before that, his family were Methodists.
The Church of No Name is an interesting story - they're also called Two By Twos, a Protestant Church from Ireland originally. They don't seem to have a whole lotta doctrine on purpose, and they have a lot of meetings.
It's a home-based religion mostly, based on Bible teachings. My great-grandfather would come home from his work in the mill in Tacoma, where he lived, make himself a cup of hot chocolate, and sit down at night to read the Bible. My grandmother would sit with him sometimes.
There were some indications he had some doubts about his faith, because he would tell my grandmother at times like this that the Lord's true church was out there somewhere, and she should look for it.
She did, for many years. She drove more than a few Baptist missionaries crazy with her 'devil's questions' about prophets, priesthood, and other items of interest. Still, she kept asking.
My mother joined the Catholic Church in her teens, as most of her Hispanic friends in Arizona were Catholic. Meanwhile, my mother's older sister Carol married a young Navy man with a teensy alcohol problem.
One night he wrecked his car after a bender, and spent a long time in the hospital. His near-death experience propelled him towards religion, and he and Carol took the LDS missionary discussions. My mother sat in with them. While they didn't continue on toward baptism (Wink decided he didn't want to join if he couldn't be in charge, and my aunt didn't want to give up smoking), my mother finished the discussions and decided to get baptized.
His Catholic priest heard she was taking the missionary discussions, and reprimanded her for it. She told me she might have returned to Catholicism if he'd been nicer about it, but there it goes. She moved on and didn't look back. My grandmother (the one with the devil's questions) had all her questions answered by the LDS missionaries, and joined the church after her daughter did.
M grandmother's husband, my stepfather Loring Fowler - his father was a Methodist minister, and he wouldn't join the LDS faith out of respect for his father's beliefs, but after he passed away, my grandmother had him sealed to her in the temple.
Did They Accept? Didn't They?
It's LDS doctrine that, while temple work can be done in proxy for those who have passed away in this life, it's still their choice as to whether or not they can accept that work, so we can't know for sure if they've accepted it or not.
My grandmother also had temple work done for her father - the one who told her to keep looking for the Lord's church at night, while reading the Bible.
A short time later, she was sick, and called for a blessing. While the two priesthood holders laid their hands on her head to bless her, she later reported the sensation of three sets of hands instead of two, and she strongly suspected that her father had accepted the temple work done on his behalf, and had joined the prayer circle from the other side to try and help her.
Further Back
Beyond that point, we can only guess what religion our family members were, based on historical patterns.
Most of my family members were from the Northeast part of the United States (New Jersey, Connecticut), so it's likely they were largely Protestant. I have one family member who was tried as a witch in Connecticut during the time of the Salem Witch trials, so perhaps she was at least wishing she was Protestant, or even Puritan, if she wasn't.
Back beyond that, they were perhaps Catholic or Protestant, since most of them lived in England, Ireland and Scotland, and perhaps fighting each other.
Hubby's Family
My hubby's family came largely through Mexico, Ireland, and Europe, so chances are most of them were Catholic. The Catholic Church historically had a significant influence in these areas. It was politically correct to be Catholic, and sometimes dangerous not to be, so at this point, we suspect Catholic on his side.
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