We could not find a photograph of her. If you hold one — a descendant's album, a county archive, a gravestone portrait — it would fill this space permanently. Write to mormonstories@gmail.com.
No. 44 on Johnson's list — but this page is hers
Sarah Malin
1804–1858
Sealed to Brigham Young 18 Apr 1848 — she was 44, he was 47.
This was a sealing, not a marriage in law — plural marriage had no legal standing. What that meant.
Crossing the plains
Who she was, and what happened
Married at Winter Quarters in April 1848, just before the main body went west. Quinn records her with no children and NOT named in Brigham's will - the combination that usually marks a sealing which never became a household relationship. SHE LEFT HIM: Johnson, writing about the plains marriages, says plainly that 'both Sarah and Mary Jane later left him.' Hers is the tenth and least visible of his ten divorces - no certificate, no date, one clause in a sentence about somebody else. Died 1858.
Key dates
- 1848 Sealed to him 18 Apr 1848 A sealing, not a marriage in law: plural marriage had no legal standing.
- 1858 Died 1858
Nothing here is inferred. Johnson's Table 1 has one date column, so where an event is documented but undated it is shown as "no date" rather than given a spurious one — the missing date is itself a fact about how these records were kept. Only two of the fifty-five have a civil marriage date; for the other fifty-three the single date records a sealing, because plural marriage had no standing in law.
What survives in her own words
Nothing from her, and no life of her written by anyone else.
None known. Register and a death record.
'Nauvoo Sealings and Adoptions,' p. 783, GS; Salt Lake City death records, p. 22, #863
15 of the fifty-five left words of their own. The rest are known only through other people's papers. What that silence means.
The record
- Born
- 1804
- Died
- 1858
- Died at
- Salt Lake City
- Outlived Brigham Young?
- No - died before him
- Marriage or sealing
- 18 Apr 1848
- Her age at the marriage
- 44
- His age at the marriage
- 47
- Age gap
- 3 years
- Phase of his life
- Crossing the plains
- Type of sealing
- Not recorded ?
- Already married to another man?
- No ?
- Her other husbands
- -
- Widow of Joseph Smith?
- No
- Sexual relationship?
- Unlikely
- Children by Brigham Young
- 0
- Lived with him?
- Unknown
- Divorce or separation
- Left BY (Johnson p. 62); no certificate recorded
- Named in his will?
- No
- Sealed to him as an adopted daughter first?
- No ?
- Kin tie to him or another wife
- None recorded
- Left the church?
- Not documented here
- Remarried after Brigham Young?
- Not established here
- Her later husband(s)
- None recorded
Source and confidence: Johnson Table 1 and p. 62 ('both Sarah and Mary Jane later left him'); Quinn App. 6 ('*Sarah M. Guckin (Malin) 1848 (no ch)')
A blank or “not established here” means the fact was not documented in the sources behind this table. It does not mean zero, and it does not mean no. We leave it empty rather than guessing, because inventing a detail of her life would be another way of not listening to her. The size of that gap is the argument for the book she never got.