Some Family Lore

How did my family of Protestant Refugees end up being Roman Catholic??

When you begin to explore family history, you have to be prepared for surprises, and even discomfort and discord.

Here I am at my First Communion. My Mom is taking the picture. My Dad is hidden behind my great Aunt Helen’s hat. Also there are my Grandmother and Grandfather Saver, and my Grandmother Grimes (right). I am holding a rosary that we were given. 

The thought of my taking communion at Mass would have horrified some previous generations of the Saver family. If you read a previous blog then you know the Savor/Saver family came to North America as Protestant refugees, and then from New York State to Canada as Loyalists, where they settled on land along the St. Lawrence near Iroquois. It seems five generations ago in the mid 19^th Century that William Savor married Rose Rooney, and her name tells us that she was an Irish Catholic. How this could have happened at that time is a mystery, but it must have been a love match, as the prejudice of the time would have condemned it. 

The family lore says that William told Rose that he would not support her religious practise. So, she walked four miles to church and four miles home every Sunday, in all weather. William watched her do this, and then on his deathbed, he converted to Catholicism, and so his descendants became Catholic too. This would have scandalized the other members of the family and led to a breach. 

My great Grandfather Patrick Saver (“Patrick” - definitely Rose’s son) born in 1861, changed the spelling of his surname to Saver to mark this. He also moved away to Metcalfe, Ontario near Ottawa, although my Grandfather returned his family to the area. 

We tend to forget the serious discrimination on the basis of religion that existed in Canada for much of this country’s history. Of course, it continues to be a reality, as anti-Semitism and Islamophobia frequently surface. And residential schools attempted to destroy the spirituality of indigenous peoples. 

It seems we still have a way to go to be a country that truly welcomes and honours everyone.