During the early history of
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, converts from the British Isles played a crucial role, providing much-needed strength and leadership to the fledgling church. Among these, the Welsh were prominent, with influential figures such as Dan Jones and others making significant contributions to the growth of the work.
The Church had great missionary success in Wales during the 1840's and 1850's, and many thousands of Welsh converts immigrated to America, heading West with Brigham Young as a part of the great Mormon Migration, which began in 1847. Today it is estimated that approximately twenty percent of the population of Utah is of Welsh descent.
As the message of the restoration spread throughout Wales, many Saints eagerly asked, "Pa bryd y cawn fyned i Seion?", which means "When may we go to Zion?" The new converts sought to follow the counsel of their leaders to leave "Babylon" (Wales) and go to "Zion" (Utah).
This site seeks to preserve and share information about the early converts to Mormonism in Wales. Its main focus is on those individuals who were involved in the Mormon movement in 19th-century Wales. The individuals featured in this site are generally those who were born in Wales and came to America after converting to the Church.
The information contained herein has been compiled from a variety of sources, but mainly from the "Ancestral File" found on the Church's
web site. Our database contains a separate record of information for each individual, in addition to numerous multimedia resources, such as journals, biographies and photos. Information about individuals can be found by searching the name in
Immigrants. An index of our multimedia resources can be found in the
For information regarding upcoming Welsh events, visit the
Send pictures to be added to this site as jpeg email attachments, and send text as Word email attachments to
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