Reader comments
BYU posts 115 LDS missionary journals online

Very Cool | 2:05 a.m. Dec. 26, 2007

I love family history work and if this furthers the cause, I applaud their work. This is not to say these are just as important in a historical context for reminding us how these men and women sacrificed for us.

Tha�s Pino | 4:49 a.m. Dec. 26, 2007

It's wonderful to know how technology makes possible for everyone to have access to such a rich material, even in Brazil, where I'm currently reading about it.
Hopefully LDS members and friends will take advantage of this to learn more about our history.

wallyworld | 8:18 a.m. Dec. 26, 2007

Neat idea

Comments continue below

Melva McKenzie | 8:47 a.m. Dec. 26, 2007

I wonder if they want more. I have my
grandfather's [John Henry Hansen] missionary diaries for two years all transcribed, plus his faded books. He served for two years in Kentucky in 1875-76.

MoJules | 9:39 a.m. Dec. 26, 2007

Melva, that is cool that you have those, I would contact BYU and let them know you have those, it is awesome that these are now for everyone to see. My husband has Hansen's but he doesn't think that line was in the Nauvoo area.

private journal | 9:46 a.m. Dec. 26, 2007

What a horrible thing, to display private journals online. It doesn't matter if the person is dead, the journals should remain private in the families of their descendants.

re: private journal | 11:00 a.m. Dec. 26, 2007

Private Journal - If these people wrote their journals for themselves and not for their posterity, then I agree with you.

As a journal writer myself, while my thoughts are private, I also understand that what I have written will probably be read by someone, someday.

Odds are that 100% of these people of faith would be thrilled that so many people could learn from their life experience.

Jerry Jensen | 11:05 a.m. Dec. 26, 2007

What a wonderful idea. Joseph Smith set the example when he kept a record of the daily struggles of life which now comprise the 7 volume History of the Church. I have read that collection and have found it to be inspirational. My hat is off to those who have allowed access to their trials and triumphs.

mel | 11:12 a.m. Dec. 26, 2007

Re: Private Journal,
I'm guessing it was the families who made the journals public in the first place and I believe they have every right to do so.

Brickhouse | 11:49 a.m. Dec. 26, 2007

Thank God Al Gore invented the Internet.....

Agree. | 12:23 p.m. Dec. 26, 2007

While many people were involved in bringing the Internet to fruition, without Al Gore's agenda in bringing it to the public, it would not exist in the form it does today! Even the technical wizards behind the Internet at ARAP agree on that.

Glad to hear that readers of the DNews understand that too. I am heartened. :)

A Grateful Descendant | 1:10 p.m. Dec. 26, 2007

What a pleasure it is to find one of my great-grandfathers journals (a gift from John R. Young to his son Edward almost 100 years ago) on the Internet. Though I have spent hundreds of hours researching this ancestor's history I was unaware of this valuable little book until today. Thanks to all who made this possible. I have a suggestion for "Private Journal." Please read my great-grandfather's journal. He intended it for you and all other seekers of truth.

Workinglate | 2:46 p.m. Dec. 26, 2007

Agree. - have you considered the possibility that Brickhouse was being sarcastic? Al Gore's "agenda to bring the internet to the public" is yet another one of Al Gore's presumptions of his own greatness. Clearly, you've bought into his megalomaniacal vision.

Andre Mostert | 3:22 p.m. Dec. 26, 2007

This is wonderful that these are online. i wish I could find more of my ancestors diaries. I have one. Tremendously interesting.

I know my eyes are as old as the rest of me, but after reading this article three times I still haven't found the internet url for the web page? Are we keeping it a secret?

ME | 4:10 p.m. Dec. 26, 2007

I think this wonderful! I can hardly wait until they put Brigham Young and other church leaders on this site. It will be good for all to learn and read everything they can on these people. I hope that they are all authentic.

Re: Andre Mostert | 4:56 p.m. Dec. 26, 2007

Read it again and click on Mormon Missionary Journals

l | 5:06 p.m. Dec. 26, 2007

Anything written 100-plus years ago is public domain, so legally anyone can do anything they want with what's in the journals.

In terms of what's morally right, I believe those who wrote the journals wrote in them knowing that they were writing for future generations to be able to read them.

Hey, Workinglate: | 5:08 p.m. Dec. 26, 2007

"Agree. - have you considered the possibility that Brickhouse was being sarcastic? Al Gore's "agenda to bring the internet to the public" is yet another one of Al Gore's presumptions of his own greatness. Clearly, you've bought into his megalomaniacal vision."

Have you considered I knew that he was being sarcastic and I was pointing out that his sarcasm was misguided?

Want to Know | 7:48 p.m. Dec. 26, 2007

I wish I could have access to the 100 volumes of my ancestors journals, which is esconced in a families attic. They refuse to let anyone look at them even from within the family. If the person wrote the journal to help his/her family undertand them they should be shared with all family members, not just the one who happens to have them in their possesion.

GREED | 11:34 p.m. Dec. 26, 2007

I agree with (want to know). There are many, many people in the church with large families and there are always those family members who are intent on keeping pioneer diaries, and Photographs away from others in the family. They keep it all to themselves and refuse to share. There are always those very greedy family members who keep the goods away from others who also deserve their ancestors memories as much as they do. I cannot understand this kind of greed? It is very sad and not too Christian.

David | 11:48 p.m. Dec. 26, 2007

Hello Melva McKenzie. I'm trying to get a database together of old journals, and would love to include the one's you've got. If you're interested, please email me at david@nauvoorarebooks.com
Thanks.
David

Steve | 1:50 a.m. Dec. 27, 2007

I have my grandfather's diary. Would BYU be interested in having that? He was on 3 church missions.

Lois K | 11:40 a.m. Dec. 27, 2007

I've wondered for many years why James Stephens Brown's diary (reprinted by Hugh B. Brown in the 1960s called Giant of the Lord) isn't among the pioneer diaries. It is a diary. He served with the Mormon Battalion and walked all the way to San Diego, then was at Sutter's Mill and was one of the original discoverers of gold, and he served a mission in Tahiti. I have the book, and I've found several through Deseret book auctions for my sons. Do you want to copy it?

Fishhawk | 4:09 p.m. Dec. 27, 2007

What is the "Family Church History Archives?" There is no such entity. There is the Family History Library, which does not contain original manuscripts, and the Church Historical Department, which does (I have used them there.)

This is not a nationwide wire story (AP, etc.) so you ought to get it right.

tom | 7:36 a.m. Dec. 28, 2007

Dear Fishhawk.....Go play Canasta or something so you won't have to be worried about such subjects as seem to be.

once again | 9:18 a.m. Dec. 28, 2007

Great story, but it would have been nice if the reporter included a web link for easy access.

Liz | 5:58 p.m. Dec. 29, 2007

This is really nice to know. There are so many forgotten pioneers in the LDS church. If you weren't in a leadership position in the church in those days, you may never be noticed and as well, more or less forgotten. If there are diaries out there for the forgotten pioneers it will be nice for the families to share them with us all.

Thanks for this new website. Just go type in LDS Missionary Journals... You can't miss it.

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