Trying to find out who was the first catholic member of my family?

Question

I know my great grandmother was raised in convent/orphanage in NY by an half aunt when parents died. I know that great grandmother and other following generations where raised Catholic. But I'm interested in finding the earliest one on my father's maternal side.

Answer 1

You might have to go very very far back (as in: into the Middle Ages) to find that. Until the Reformation, in Western Europe, "Christian" meant "Catholic". (Many of my own ancestors were English Catholic recusants who never accepted the Church of England, so I would assume that their Catholicism goes back to the seventh or eighth century.)