Step Three: Collections
Handcart & Wagon Roster Databases
The Mormon Pioneer Overland Travel Database contains more than 60,000 compilation of names obtained from "rosters and other reliable sources of individuals who immigrated to Utah during this two-decade period. Each company is listed under its captain's name, and basic information is provided, including a photograph of the captain where available. Many companies include a list of diaries, journals, letters, and reminiscences written by company members, as well as contemporary reports about the company. The content of several thousand of those narratives has been transcribed and is included in the database."
"Between 1847 and 1868, Mormon emigrants traveling in more than 300 companies departed from various places and headed for the Salt Lake Valley. . . some traveling by foot, some in wagons, and some pulling handcarts."
This database has the potentially the name, age, birth and death information, plus company name the individual traveled in. This leads to a roster of all the other immigrants in that wagon or handcart train as well as travel excerpts. This is great information to create migration maps and travel excerpts to add to any written history.
Case Study
1) A search for the Evans family mentioned in previous posts shows their names and ages and the year they came across the plains - 1854. Unfortunately, the company they traveled in is unknown at this time so there aren't any travel excerpts to find. If, however, a reliable source surfaces this can be changed by following the instructions on the website.
2) John McCormick Wiser traveled west in 1850 with a California-bound gold company. Intending to winter in Salt Lake, he joined the Church in December 1850. Notice he was not Mormon but is in this database because his baptism proved he was in Utah during the pioneer period.
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