As far as descendants of Camilla Jacobsen Corbett knew, she was one of the sole LDS members in her family.

Corbett converted to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and traveled to America from her native country, Denmark. She crossed the plains in an LDS handcart company in 1857.

And as for her mother, descendants didn't know where she was born or even buried.

But after two family history buffs connected via the World Wide Web, ancestors now know about the dangerous trek Corbett's mother, Ane Jorgensdatter Jacobsen, took so her descendants could have the religious freedom they enjoy today.

Almost a year ago, Ogden resident Anita Smith was surfing the Internet for information on Corbett when she found a cousin's family history Web page. After contacting this cousin, Dave Kuhns, in Seattle, the two discussed an old family rumor that Jacobsen made it to Utah and was buried in the Salt Lake City Cemetery.

"Everybody knew the story of Camila. But the story of her mother, it was just kind of a fluke that Anita and I were talking about her," Kuhns said. "The info was that she was in Denmark and that she definitely stayed in Denmark after Camila left. That was kind of it. Since we couldn't find a death record in Denmark, that's when the rumors started coming out that she came over to Salt Lake."

Smith is Jacobsen's great-great-great granddaughter and has done genealogy for about 20 years. Desperately wanting to know more about her ancestors' past, Smith took on the daunting task of finding Jacobsen's burial site.

"When I got up to the sexton's office (at the Salt Lake City Cemetery), some of the dates really didn't coordinate," Smith said, noting her skepticism prompted her to continue research in old books. "I was able to find that Camila's mother was indeed buried there. The LDS Church put her in an unidentified company coming across with her daughters."

In 1863, six years after her daughter Camila had arrived in Utah, Jacobsen was one of 767 immigrants to leave her home in Europe and sail to the United States. With daughters Jacobine and Sophie, Jacobsen left her home in Denmark and embarked on a five-month journey to follow the LDS Church west to Salt Lake City. Sadly, a mere month after reaching Utah, Jacobsen died and was buried in an unmarked grave alongside other pioneers.

"These people did so much for us and there are a lot of unrecognized people who are buried in paupers' graves who are still part of the pioneer heritage that we celebrated," Kuhns said, adding how happy he is that headstones mark the graves of the LDS faithful. "She is part of the fact that my wife's great-great-great grandmother accepted the gospel and came to Utah."