The first folder of the collection holds a photocopy and typescript of the original manuscript; the second holds 5 pages of the original manuscript (the first two and the last three) that were detached from the original and were in brittle condition; and the third folder holds a box containing the original manuscript, which measures 23 x 14.5 cm and has approximately 50 pages, written on both sides. The autobiography was written by Fanny Fry Simons in the latter part of her life. It details her mother's conversion to Mormonism in England and Fanny's trip from Liverpool to Salt Lake City via ship and then as part of a handcart company. Among other things she relates the difficulty she had with one member of the company who tried pressuring her into marrying him as a second wife; being pushed to the point of exhaustion, fainting, and waking up with two feet of her grave dug and half her body sewed up in a burial sack; and other deaths and trials of members of the company. She relates her marriage to John Zundel; a dream of John's in which he saw Fanny sitting by his deathbed, whereby he knew she was to be his wife; the account of her giving birth to their one child and of her husband's concurrent sickness and death; her husband's visitation to her after his passing; a brief mention of her work as a nurse (she mentions blessing water to give to patients); her post-partum-like depression (not called that) and struggles as a widow; her receiving of her endowments and becoming more active in the Church; and her second marriage, to Gustavus Simons.