Kentucky was the first major expansion of Catholicism outside Maryland, before there was a significant Catholic presence in an of the Northeastern states. For example:
http://www.visitbardstown.com/tourism/religion.html
Thanks for the link. I had no idea. My father’s family settled in KY in 1985 — came in a caravan with Dr. Henry Clay and his daughter, Tabitha Clay, is my GGGG+grandmother. But, I’d never heard that there were Catholics there. That branch of my family definitely were not Catholic.