On-Site Resources
Perpetual Emigrating Fund Research Guide
Primary Sources
On-site resources can be viewed at the Church History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah. You can access the item or collection information in the Church History Catalog and request to see the source when you visit the library. You may receive a microfilm copy for use at the library; for preservation and conservation purposes, originals are not generally circulated.
Perpetual Emigrating Fund Company New York office files, 1864–1887 (CR 376 3)
This collection contains PEF passenger tickets, receipts, correspondence, and financial account information for Church immigration business conducted through the PEF office in New York City. The following collections are not corporate records. They represent how individuals recorded their personal donations to the PEF.
Peter Hansen papers, 1868–1876 (MS 27546)
Among Peter Hansen’s papers is his PEF loan contract and a receipt for a PEF payment he made on behalf of Anna Marie Johannsen.
William H. Maughan account book, 1869–1876 (MS 2521)
Found within this collection is a list of PEF subscriptions for 1869.
John Hopla diary, 1853 April–November (MS 6360)
Hopla’s diary includes an account of donations made to the PEF.
Abraham Orme mission journal, 1860–1864 (MS 22551)
This journal includes account donations made to the PEF.
John Lyon, The Harp of Zion: A Collection of Poems, &c. (M288.1 L991h 1853)
A book of poetry composed by John Lyon, “published for the benefit of the Perpetual Emigrating Fund,” as indicated on the title page.
Books
Gustive O. Larson, Prelude to the Kingdom: Mormon Desert Conquest; A Chapter in American Cooperative Experience (M272 L334p)
Philip A. M. Taylor, Expectations Westward: The Mormons and the Emigration of Their British Converts in the Nineteenth Century (M273.4 T245e 1965 no. 2)
Ray Davis, Law and the Nineteenth Century British Mormon Migration (M273.41 D263L 1985?)
Daughters of Utah Pioneers, British Contribution to Utah (M273.41 C323b 1940)
Robert O. Day, The Enoch Train Pioneers: Trek of the First Two Handcart Companies (M273.41 D274e 2001)
Shelli Simmons, Across the Sea, Across the Plains: The Epic Account of the Willie and Martin Handcart Companies from Europe to Zion (M273.41 S592a 2012)
Dissertations and Theses
Scott Alan Carson, “The Perpetual Emigrating Fund: Redemption, Servitude, and Subsidized Migration in America’s Great Basin” (M273.41 C321p 1998)
Heather Fay Howard, “An Economic Analysis of the Perpetual Emigrating Fund” (M273.41 H849e 2008)
Lily Pritchard, “Across the Waves: Mormon Emigration of British Saints, 1840–1870” (M273.41 P961a 1989)
Erick L. Wadsworth, “The 1866 European Mormon Migration” (M273.41 W124e 2014)