"Blessed, Honored Pioneer!"

Today is what we Mormons call Pioneer Day. On this day in 1847, the first wagon train of Saints entered the Salt Lake Valley.


They traveled through five states; that's 1297 miles from Nauvoo, IL.¹ And that's not including the travels of others Saints who crossed the Atlantic or came from New York and other eastern states. 

Trek by Covered Wagons

The trek by wagon was hard. At first everyone went by wagon. The only thing was, it was expensive. In 1856 it cost $93 per person to go by wagon.²

The Brooklyn Saints

Some Saints didn't have enough money to take the trail overland but they did have enough for a very long sea voyage. The Brooklyn went from New York, all the way around the horn of South America, and finally landed in California where most of those seafaring Saints stayed for a time.

The Handcart Pioneers

Handcarts were used by Saints who didn't have enough money for wagons and this way the Church could get more people to Utah. Handcarts were cheaper but harder.

These determined Saints came across the plains pulling and pushing handcarts; a wooden box on two wheels. (This is the part where I would have a picture but it didn't work out. Don't you love technology?)

Because of the size of the "vehicle", you couldn't exactly pack up your house and take it with you. Even with a wagon, you had a certain weight each person could take along.

So on this day, July 24th, we Mormons celebrate our ancestors and early Brothers and Sisters who pushed and pulled, walked and struggled, all the way to Zion. Thank you.

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1. lds.org.

2. https://history.lds.org/bc/content/images/historic-sites/handcart-trek/handcart-infographics-wagons-vs-handcarts-luke-perkins.jpg

If you're interested in learning more about the Mormon pioneers you can go to this website: https://history.lds.org/article/remembering-handcart-pioneers-in-the-sweetwater-valley?lang=eng. This page specifically focuses on the handcart pioneers.

If you want you can even read Gerald N. Lund's book about two of the handcart companies. His book is titled Fire of the Covenant. (It's really good.)

Family History

Usually, I inwardly groan when I hear about family history. It's not that I don't value it, I just don't really like it.
Well, that's not really true. I enjoy indexing and I love learning about family stories but the finding names or adding them or whatever, that part doesn't really fascinate me.

So, of course, that being said, I come to find out that for Youth Conference (a three day conference for youth) one of the "homework" assignments is finding a family name for an important activity*. I did it...and this time I actually had some fun. It was still (pretty) tedious working out some things but I kind of enjoyed it.

Family history can be a lot of fun. And it's not just finding and adding names. It includes indexing (transcribing old documents), learning/hearing and recording family stories, and just looking at your family names.

I think family history is kind of whatever you make of it, in a way. It can be really fun. So, I challenge you to just look at your family tree, family photos, whatever even if you just have a list of names. They're real people like you and me. It's really interesting what you learn and what names come up. For example, I found someone in a census and he had a housemaid. To add to that, a dog was later named about this housemaid. Go figure. I've also come across names like Ora (not a name you see every day) and Parthania (another name you don't hear everyday).
I think it's those things, the unique (and the more common names too) and the small, sometimes surprising facts, that make it worth it, at least to me.


*So, in case you're wondering, this important activity is baptisms for the dead. I'm a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Later-day Saints and we believe that even though someone has passed on, their baptisms can still be done by others through proxy.