Quite some time ago I read about how young girls in England were duped into coming to the US once they had converted. Leaders of the Mormon church deceived Mormons in England telling them that the rumors of polygamy were lies. Young Mormon women would make their way the US to travel to Zion to find that the awful stories were, indeed the truth.

I just read a brief story about a Sara Anglesey aged 15 who cried as her parents placed her on a boat leaving England to sail to the US where she would make her way to "Zion" to join her sister, Martha, (even though they did not quite know where in Utah her sister was). Eventually Sarah made it to Utah where she was able to locate Martha who was living as the polygamous wife of my husband's gr gr gr grandfather. There are not many details as to what transpired but it is very sad, if not maddening to find out that Sarah became the third wife of this man. I can't even imagine.

Shocking, to say the least.

Marriage was not kind for these arranged marriages. Their lives were harsh, and it was the women and children who suffered the most.