Between 1840 and 1930, nearly 90,000 members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints immigrated to America. The stories of these seagoing saints are often overshadowed by tales of their arduous trek across the plains.

But the stories of the pioneer trek didn’t always start on land. Many church pioneers recorded inspiring experiences of their voyage over the ocean toward an unknown future.

“When I arrived at Liverpool and saw the ocean that would soon roll between me and all I loved, my heart almost failed me,” wrote Priscilla Stains of her 1844 voyage across the Atlantic Ocean on the ship Fanny. “There was no turning back … so I thus alone set out for the reward of everlasting life, trusting in God.”

Fred E. Woods, a Brigham Young University professor of church history and doctrine, is determined to keep these stories alive.

For nearly three decades, Woods and a team of colleagues, students and missionaries have collected sources and documented the experiences of convert immigrants to America in an interactive database called Saints by Sea that is hosted by the BYU Library.

The Saints by Sea website contains information about convert immigrant voyages, including names of passengers and first-hand accounts. Visitors to the site can discover the ship on which their ancestors traveled to the United States as well as first-hand accounts that vividly detail the voyage. An additional collaboration between the BYU Library, the BYU Record Linking Lab and FamilySearch guides visitors to their ancestors found in the Saints by Sea database, linked to the ancestor in FamilySearch’s Family Tree.

Joe Everett, senior librarian at the BYU Library Family History Center, oversees the maintenance of the website for public use. Everett cherishes the moments when people connect with their ancestors.

“The actual number of unique people in the database is less than 100,000,” Everett said. “But at least a couple of million people today can connect back to those people who are in the database.”

Woods worked with students at BYU-Idaho and BYU’s Center for Family History and Genealogy who indexed each name from mission emigration registers preserved by the Church History Library. The index is further enriched by contemporary accounts from journals and memoirs that Woods and his team researched and transcribed. The result is an impressive resource for people to make meaningful connections with their ancestors.

During the voyages, European immigrants lived in cramped quarters on ships for weeks to months, yet Church of Jesus Christ passengers were known for their joy and faith in God.

The voyages to America were not often smooth sailing. The Saints faced turbulent waters, seasickness and disease.

Approximately 670 church immigrants died while crossing the oceans to gather to Zion. Despite these trials, these immigrants retained the faith necessary to calm storms, heal the sick and even preach the gospel aboard the ships.

Everett is certain the accounts of these seagoing saints will strengthen church members’ testimonies today as well.

“What can I learn from their resilience — their faith to endure?” he said. “How could I apply that in my life today? What things are hard for me to do? If they could do those things, I can persevere and do the hard things that I face every day.”

Woods hopes people will use this resource to discover more than their ancestors’ ship. He wants people to understand why their ancestors were willing to sacrifice everything to make the journey to Zion.

“I’ve had sacred experiences in which I felt people from the past wanted their story told in order to testify of the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ and why they gathered to Zion,” Woods said.

Woods continues his research to complete the story of church convert migration. His forthcoming database “Saints by State” will document the history of the church within each state of the U.S., including by faith-inspiring stories, interviews, bibliographies, encyclopedic entries and documentary films. It will be released in 2030 to commemorate the bicentenary of the church.

Melissa Jenson is a media relations intern with BYU University Communications.