Charles Sansom: The Gloucestershire Teenager Who Crossed the Ocean for Zion and Left a Record of His Voyage

Charles Sansom (April 16, 1826 – March 28, 1908) was born in Forest Green (Avening), Gloucestershire, England — the same county where Wilford Woodruff had baptized hundreds of converts just a few years before. Sansom was baptized on January 1, 1845, at age 18.

His autobiography and journals, written in 1907 and now preserved in the Church History Catalog, record his emigration experiences from England through 1852. They were digitized and made available through BYU's 'Saints by Sea' project, which preserves the accounts of the thousands of early Saints who crossed the ocean to gather to Zion.

Sansom's record describes the experience of crossing the Atlantic with a ship carrying 600–700 Mormon passengers: 'I think there was between 600 and 700 Mormon passengers on board. On the voyage home we had considerable head winds and the vessel rocked considerable.'

He emigrated with the John Tidwell Company and eventually settled in Salt Lake City, Utah, where he lived until 1908 — a remarkable 82 years of life, and over 60 years as a member of the Church.

Charles Sansom represents the tens of thousands of English converts who heard the gospel in the 1840s and chose to leave everything behind — country, family, comfort — to cross an ocean and build Zion in the mountains. His autobiography is a quiet but powerful witness to the faith that moves people to extraordinary sacrifice.