Findlay was baptized in Dundee, Scotland,[1][2] on July 1, 1844, by missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

"[8] Findlay was eventually able to organize a branch of twelve members in Poona by mid-September 1852, a mixture of "European, Eurasian, and native.

He studied the Marathi language and spent considerable time discussing religion with a group of Brahmin intellectuals.

[3][18] He and a few fellow Mormons emigrated by way of Hong Kong (where they baptized one convert) to the United States, arriving later that year.

[20] The couple helped settle Riverdale, Utah, where Hugh made a living by manufacturing and selling matches.

[1] In 1857 Findlay began practicing plural marriage when he married 16-year-old Mary Ellen Smith, with whom he eventually had seven children.

[13] On the second day at sea, 26-year-old Allan married Jessie Ireland,[27] a 28-year-old whom the ship's manifest identified as a spinster, although they had been dating for about ten years.

Although they crossed the plains with the ill-fated Willie Handcart Company,[28][29][30] all three survived and made it to Salt Lake City.

[31] In the Fall of 1869, Brigham Young called Findlay and his families to help settle the Bear Lake country.

[32] On May 5, 1879, Orson Pratt (who was also in the British Isles at the time) received a letter from John Taylor, instructing him to obtain electroplates for a new edition of the Doctrine & Covenants.

One history records: He had no money with which to pay his steamboat passage to Scotland, but, true to his unwavering faith, he packed his suitcase, ready to obey, and walked toward the wharf where he was to sail.

As he passed the post office, he asked for his mail and received a letter from a strange lady who wrote him of her interest in articles he had written for the Millennial Star and enclosed for him a five-pound note which was equal to about twenty-five dollars in American money.