Happy 164th Pioneer Day (1847)!

We imagine the journey...

leaving home

leaving Nauvoo

moving west

arriving at Ensign Peak, Utah

We remember them today.  To our ninety* pioneers--thank you! Special shout-out to Addison Everett, who arrived in Utah with that vanguard company in July 1847.

song written for this holiday by ancestor Isaac Sorensen

*Defining a pioneer in LDS terms is actually trickier than one might imagine.  Is it someone who joined the Church?  Crossed the plains?  Is there a rigid time frame?  The Daughters of the Utah Pioneers (DUP) counts a pioneer as one who arrived in Utah before the railroad in 1869, whether by travel or by native birth. I include the six Utah-born pioneers amongst our group who fit this definition, and extend the date to include those who came later by train.  I also include ancestors who came to Utah in that era but did not join the Church.  I expand the DUP definition of a pioneer to also include our ancestors who joined the Church as new converts in the nineteenth century and tried to join the Saints, even if they died before arriving in Utah. Essentially, our pioneers either came to Utah in the nineteenth century and/or joined the Church, and in many cases did both.  This time frame includes those born between 1768-1875, a span of more than a century.