Janet Hale's "Bloodlines"; McLoughlin and fort demographics

[The McDonald Family]

At 07:10 PM 4/17/2001 -0700, you wrote:
>>At 07:56 PM 4/16/2001 -0700, you wrote:
>> >Here is a page of links to more info about Janet Hale and her books.
>> >The first two links lead to brief bios, which also include
>> >photographs of her.  http://www.ipl.org/cgi/ref/native/browse.pl/A36
>> >As to how many generations away from McLoughlin she would be, Ms.
>> >Hale relates being told she was the great-great granddaughter of
>> >McLoughlin, and she is in the right age bracket for that number of
>> >"great's."
>> >
>> >I see my county library has two copies out in branches of
>> >"Bloodlines," so it might be available in most local libraries.
>> >
>> >I was surprised to see she described McLoughlin as Irish (and
>> >consequently herself as part-Irish), as I had always thought him to
>> >be a Scot (though born in Canada).  I found an article in the [online
>> >version of the 1908] Catholic Encyclopedia which describes his
>> >background. There I discovered he was Irish on his father's side and
>> >Scottish on his mother's.  The impression of him as a Scot is
>> >probably reinforced by the facts that John was raised by his maternal
>> >grandfather (his father died young), and he was sent for a to study a
>> >while in Scotland.  http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09504b.htm
>> >
>> >On the topic of the predominant religion in the Fort, I was
>> >interested to also see there that McLoughlin himself was Anglican but
>> >converted to Catholicism in 1842.  I would imagine the fort
>> >population and HBC employees were mostly Catholic due to the
>> >preponderance of French Canadians among them.
>> >
>> >(Per the CIA Fact Book online, Canada is today divided about 42%/40%
>> >Protestant/Catholic, as compared to 56%/28% in the U.S. I can't work
>> >an equation, but using my trusty percent-key calculator to factor out
>> >the one-quarter of Canada's population who are French-speaking seems
>> >to account within a couple percent for the difference.
>> >http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ca.html .)
>
>Nice bookmark; wonder what other tidbits there are.  The difference you
>point out is rightly mostly due to the French, but also to a strong Catholic
>element in Atlantic Canada as well as in the West; Ontario I'm not so sure
>about, at least until recent times before its multiculturalization (it used
>to be near-solid Orange).  Out West there's a large Ukrainian and other
>East-Euro Catholic population dating both back to frontier times and also
>among the newcomers; and there are a surprising amount of Chinese-Catholic
>churches; at least one or two of the local parochial schools do, in fact,
>serve the Chinese community directly.  Another difference out West, though,
>espeically out here beyond the mountains, is that there's also a broad
>element of society that's a-religious and have only the loosest connection
>to their hereditary religions; at most where weddings and funerals are held;
>back East there's a lot more actual worship, especially in Quebec (even
>now), and the Church (of any demonination) is much more a part of local
>society than the rectors are out here.

I'm not sure. Even on Prince Edward Island, religious practice is largely
nominal, and becoming increasingly individualistic. Religion would be
something that you'd save for the grandparents, save that more than a few
grandparents aren't interested..

>The breakdown of that 42/40 split I'd be interested to see; in Quebec it's
>more like 80%, I think.

According to the Millennium issue of _L'actualité,_ 86% of Québec's
population is nominally Catholic, but only 10% regularly go to mass.

>[deletia]
>
>>Pardon my interjection, but hmm.
>>
>>I'm not sure that you can project those figures back into Canadian history,
>>or that the modern Canadian figures on religion are comparable to the
>>United States ones.
>>
>>For the US: Protestant 56%, Roman Catholic 28%, Jewish 2%, other 4%, none
>>10% (1989)
>>
>>For Canada: Roman Catholic 42%, Protestant 40%, other 18%
>>
>>The American figures look like they were based on religious affiliation at
>>birth, given that the US is more religious than, well, the rest of the
>>First World. Conversely, the Canadian figures seem to be based on religious
>>_practice_ and active identification, which are considerably lower. I don't
>>think that those figures are directly comparable.
>
>Again, I'm not so sure about those parameters in this context; my impression
>of the figures you've quoted is that they were by birth; technically I'm
>United Church under those definitions but would never now think of myself
>that way (what I am is another question, but we'll leave that for now), and
>that's the way I've always assumed the census types totted up their figures.

I think that you need to make a distinction between religious identification
(i.e. 86% of Québec) and religious practice (i.e. 10% of Québec). Please
remind me; Does Statistics Canada ask questions like that?

>And _are_ Americans really more religious than Europeans?  That's a testy
>one; the Church has lost its zeal throughout Europe but the devout are still
>the devout.

True, but from my readings religion in Europe seems to be more of an ethnic
marker than anything else, and is largely vestigial among the majority
populations, serving only as an in-group market. To take only one example,
the Russian Orthodox Church has apparently been presenting the war in
Chechnya as a Christian offensive against Muslims, even though only 5-10% of
Russians regularly go to church.

>[deletia of information about religion in western Canada; thanks]
>
>MC

Later,
Randy McDonald