Orphan Trains
by Christine Sweet-Hart, CG, Contributing Editor
Overcrowding in orphanages, hardships in immigrant families, and the inability or unwillingness of families to take care of their children started the trend in the North East United States to provide their children a better way of life with Midwestern farm families. Set up by orphanages such as the New York Juvenile Asylum, the Children's Aid Society of New York, and the New York Foundling Hospital, a Roman Catholic organization set up by the Sisters of Mercy in response to Catholic children being placed in Protestant homes, the orphan trains resulted in a large child migration out of the Northeast United States to the Midwest. Many ended up in Illinois and Missouri.
An estimated 150,000 to 400,000 street children of New York's orphanages were teens when they were shipped out west. Although there were some success stories in the placements, many were separated from their siblings and mistreated by the families who took them in.
According to the website at www.outfitters.com/~melissa/ot/ot.html, the orphan trains ran from about 1850 to the early twentieth century when the social programs of the 1930s made them unnecessary. A 1901 Missouri law banning them was never enforced.
Records Availability/For Further Reading:
The Orphan Train Heritage Society of America
614 East Ema Ave., Suite 115
Springdale, AR 72764
Orphan Train Riders
Orphan Train - An Iowa GenWeb Special Project
Orphan Trains - Kansas
Orphan Trains - GeneaLinks
Orphan Trains - Nebraska State Historical Society
Orphan Trains
They Rode the Orphan Trains
Lists of Orphanages in the U.S.
How to Research U.S., British, and Canadian Orphans
Cyndi's List - extensive list of resources
Orphan Train Heritage Society
Archives of Orphan Train Information
Gravestone Emblem of Orphan Train Riders
Previously published in the USGenWeb Newsletter
June 2007, Volume 4, Number 5
