Mormon Immigration Index Released

The Family and Church History Department recently released the Mormon Immigration Index on CD-ROM. This index documents the journeys of over 94,000 converts who crossed the Atlantic or Pacific Oceans to gather with the Saints in North America between 1840 and 1890.

The automated index includes the name, age, and country of origin of each passenger. Voyage information includes ports of departure and arrival as well as the approximate number of passengers on each ship, the assigned company leaders, and often a brief history of the voyage.

The index also includes transcriptions of autobiographies, journals, diaries, and letters of approximately 1,000 immigrant converts. “Journals and diaries are the things that can bring family history to life,” said Ray Madsen, Family and Church History Department product manager. “The accounts are cross-referenced so individuals using the index can also read what others have written about their ancestors.”

Fred Woods and Blaine Bake, faculty members at Brigham Young University and BYU—Idaho, created the index using British Mission immigration passenger lists and other sources.

The Mormon Immigration Index CD (item no. 50174) can be purchased for U.S. $5.00 at Church distribution centers worldwide or ordered on the Internet at www.familysearch.org.