Anybody else have stories like this? Ancester of mine born 100 years before me to parents that converted to mormonism were told they should send at least one member of their family to the state of deseret to represent them. The family could only afford the cost for one, all of the older children refused so they sent their youngest at age 11. Ticket pinned to his coat he was put aboard a freight ship, where a ships mate took him under his wing. When ship docked in Massachussetts he boarded the wrong train, ended up in New York. He found a policeman who found an interpreter, because he spoke very little english, and was put on a train heading in the right direction and ultimately arrived in SLC, he was directed to the Bowery at temple square, where mormon immigrants were kept until families showed up to sponsor them or take them in. Some abusive a$$hole farmer showed up for my my ancester. He was stuck in that abuse, beaten and only allowed to go to school when the weather was so bad work could not be done - five years of that.

I mean, really? Pin a ticket to your kid and send him across the ocean... what could possibly go wrong? When I think of the potential harm he might have faced, along with what is recorded and how did that affect what he was and did to his own children, what might have carried across the generations. With all of the sick mindedness I've seen in my family line, I wonder did Joseph's cult do this or were they already sick, therefore vulnerable to a sick cult?

I'm sure most of my family find his story inspiring and testimony building. I find it horrific.

Can you imagine if the church did sh*t like that today? People would think they were the f**king Taliban or something. The Mormon church back in the 1800's were no different from the Fundies today and not too far off from Al Quaeda or Islamic State today.

The are the FUCKING TALIBAN or something, Thanks.

Now put those same circumstance in view of the immigration from Central America that was big in the news a few months ago.

Supposedly 6-8 year old children walked from Guatemala to the Mexican/American border without any help.

Guatemala to the American border is over 2,000 miles.

Would you send your 6 year old without help from Los Angeles to Chicago, a 2,000 mile trip?

Also those young immigrants had a whole lot of help to get here.

than anything else. Europeans were grabbing onto anything that would get them out of that impoverished area where so many were out of work and starving.

Very much like backphil says---not too different from Central America now. They are looking for a better life for their children. And America is the place.

My grandfather came to Utah with the missionaries when he was 12 and lived with a family that had been prearranged. The rest of his family joined him several years later. He actually welcomed leaving, his mother had died and leaving was more desirable to him than living with his stepmother, she was not nice to the stepchildren.