According to Jerry Ainsworth, when Moroni said that he was alone, without "kinsfolk" or "friends" (Mormon 8:5) in A.D. 400, we should not understand this to refer to all the descendants of those who had migrated northward many generations earlier. Successive migrations over hundreds of years to exceedingly great distances would be difficult to keep track of. [Jerry L. Ainsworth, The Lives and Travels of Mormon and Moroni, p. 203]