The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Perpetual Emigrating Fund Company Financial Accounts (Worldwide) - FamilySearch Historical Records

What is in This Collection?
The Perpetual Emigrating Fund Company was organized in October 1849. The "donations to the fund" helped outfit members "for the trek west" from 1850 to 1887. It also funded voyages to America starting in 1856. The fund was dis-incorporated in 1887 under the provisions of the Edmunds-Tucker Act. Approximately 30,000 people were assisted with all or part of their transportation expenses during the thirty-seven years of the Fund's operation. (Mormon Historical Studies, Fall 2000, p142) There is no complete list of members who used PEF. Many members used the fund, and paid their debt; enabling other members to emigrate. However, in 1877 a list called Names of Persons and Sureties Indebted to the Perpetual Emigrating Fund Company from 1850 to 1877 was created. This was a list of everyone who used PEF but had not paid their debt. Then as part of the Jubilee year of the Church, the "Worthy Poor" were forgiven their debt. The original financial ledgers of the Perpetual Emigrating Fund Company are available at the Church History Library as CR 376 2. Every person who benefited from the PEF were not included in the ledgers. The information that was included in the ledgers includes: Name of the person who emigrated from Britain. The amount they were loaned. Interest charged. The amount repaid. We will ingest the third party index and link the records to the Church History Library images. Links to the images for each record will be found in the index. There are 23203 line items in the Index. Sometimes there is a single line item for an entire family, but for most emigrants, there is a line for each family member. The same person or family could show up in the different ledgers or on different pages on the same ledger if they have multiple PEF transactions.

What Can These Records Tell Me?
The following information may be found in these records:
 * Name
 * Age
 * Event date
 * Loan amount

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I Found the Person I Was Looking For, What Now?

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I Can’t Find the Person I’m Looking For, What Now?

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Research Helps
The following articles will help you research your family in the state of Utah.
 * Tracing Latter-day Saint Ancestors
 * Utah Guided Research
 * Utah Record Finder
 * Utah Research Tips and Strategies
 * Step-by-Step Research: 1850-1905

FamilySearch Catalog

 * Melvin L. Bashore and Linda L. Haslem. Mormon Pioneer Companies Crossing the Plains (1847-1868) Narratives: a Guide to Sources to Utah Libraries and Archives.
 * Utah immigration card index, 1847-1868
 * Emigration records, European Mission; 1849-1885, 1899-1923
 * Emigration records, Scandinavian Mission (Denmark, Norway, Sweden) 1852-1920

FamilySearch Digital Library

 * Names of persons and sureties indebted to the Perpetual Emigrating Fund Company from 1850 to 1877 inclusive.Salt Lake City, Utah : Star Book and Job, 1877.
 * Daughters of Utah Pioneers. Living immigrant pioneers, July 24, 1953 : they crossed the plains before the railroad, May 10,1869.
 * Grant Davis. Perpetual Emigration Fund.
 * Index to Utah Pioneer Biographies. vols. 1-44

Citing This Collection
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