The following is an excerpt from the BYU.EDU web site:
Discover the remarkable stories of nearly 90,000 Latter-day Saint pioneers’ ocean voyages to America, meticulously preserved by BYU’s Saints by Sea database.
Between 1840 and 1890, nearly 90,000 Latter-day Saints immigrated to America. The stories of these seagoing Saints are often overshadowed by tales of their arduous trek across the plains.
But the stories of the pioneer trek didn’t always start on land. Many Latter-day Saint pioneers recorded inspiring experiences of their voyage over the ocean towards an unknown future.
“When I arrived at Liverpool and saw the ocean that would soon roll between me and all I loved, my heart almost failed me,” wrote Priscilla Stains of her 1844 voyage across the Atlantic Ocean on the ship Fanny. “There was no turning back … so I thus alone set out for the reward of everlasting life, trusting in God.”
Fred E. Woods, BYU professor of Church history and doctrine, is determined to keep these stories alive.
For nearly three decades, Woods and a team of colleagues, students and missionaries have collected sources and documented the experiences of convert immigrants to America in an interactive database, Saints by Sea.
The Saints by Sea website contains information about all known Latter-day Saint immigrant voyages, including names of passengers and first-hand accounts. Through a collaboration with FamilySearch and the BYU Library, visitors are guided to the ship on which their ancestors traveled to the United States, accompanied by first-hand accounts that vividly detail the voyage.
Joe Everett, senior librarian at BYU Library Family History Center, oversees the maintenance of the website for public use. Everett cherishes the moments when people connect with their ancestors.
“The actual number of unique people in the database is less than 100,000,” said Everett. “But at least a couple of million people today can connect back to those people who are in the database.”
Woods and his team meticulously indexed each immigrant name and searched for journals and memoirs to transcribe to the database. The result is an impressive resource for people to make meaningful connections with their ancestors.
During the voyages, European immigrants lived in cramped quarters on ships for weeks to months. Yet Latter-day Saint passengers were known for their joy and faith in God.
You can read more at: https://bit.ly/3Wam3pQ.