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bill walsh's avatar

Charles Carroll of Carrolton is a great case in point—despite being arguably the most distinguished (and certainly the wealthiest) man in Maryland, he was never allowed to hold public office, practice law, or vote in the state because he was Catholic.

Rachel Lu's avatar

The Carrolls were pretty extraordinary in fact.

bill walsh's avatar

Indeed. My grandmother’s grandmother was a Maryland Carroll of some ilk. (Not a CCC descendant, near as I can tell.)

Rachel Lu's avatar

That’s very cool! I haven’t uncovered any Catholic ancestry really (but if you go far enough back… right?) but I’d be excited if I found, you know, prominent Marylanders or recusant English Catholics in the family tree.

bill walsh's avatar

That would be exciting. I’ve mostly just found a lot of not-very prominent Marylanders so far!

Rick Garnett's avatar

Great stuff - here's a little thing I wrote in a similar vein (for Notre Dame magazine), that also involves and invokes Notre Dame football!

Rachel Lu's avatar

You didn't include the link! But I found it. I assume it is this:

https://magazine.nd.edu/stories/church-and-state/

Wonderful! So much convergence in our thoughts here!