John Bird Family Perpetual Emigration Fund

This was the form used by the church in the mid 1850's to track who was being aided by the Perpetual Emigrating Fund. These funds were required to be paid back by those securing the note either by money, crops, or property.

Walter Bird, John's oldest son and child, obtained permission from Brigham Young to secure the funds needed for his family to cross the sea from Great Britain to America and was obligated to pay it back. John Bird never made it to Utah, he died at Mormon Grove of Mountain Fever.

Ann Russon and her children carried on across the plains and arrived at Utah in September of 1855.