This should help:
"Catch wrestling is a popular style of wrestling. Catch wrestling is arguably the ancestor of modern professional wrestling and mixed martial arts competitions. Catch wrestling's origins lie in a variety of styles, most notably the regional wrestling styles of Europe, particularly the British Isles (e.g. Collar-and-elbow, Lancashire catch-as-catch-can submission wrestling etc.) and Asia (e.g. pehlwani). 'Collar-and-elbow' refers to the initial hold of the wrestlers.
The term is sometimes used in a restricted sense to refer only to the style of professional wrestling as practiced in United States carnivals just before and after 1900. Under this stricter definition, "catch wrestling" is one of many styles of professional wrestling, specifically as practiced in carnivals and at public exhibitions from after the US Civil War until the Great Depression.
There are a number of modern submission wrestling enthusiasts whose foundation lies in catch wrestling as well as no small number whose training "lineage" traces back to catch-wrestling.
Folk wrestling has a long pedigree in the United States, famous practitioners of such folk wrestling have included US Presidents George Washington (collar and elbow), Abraham Lincoln (catch-as-catch-can), and Teddy Roosevelt (who appointed catch wrestling champion Tom Jenkins to the position of Head Wrestling coach at the United States Military Academy)."
source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catch_wrestling
Mitsuyo Maeda traveled to the US and competed against catch wrestlers. There is a lot about this on his wiki but this match stands out because our academy is in Lockport, New York:
"On September 30, 1905, Tomita and Maeda gave a demonstration at another YMCA, this time the one in Lockport, New York. In Lockport, the local opponent was Mason Shimer, who wrestled Tomita unsuccessfully."
After his travels to the US, he traveled to Brazil and taught the Gracie's a combination of Judo and likely some catch techs, leaving them with the foundations for developing BJJ. So they are closely related but catch is much older.