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From: "Kemis Massey" <>
Subject: Re: [GACHATTA] USGenWeb Newsletter - Orphan Trains
Date: Sun, 1 Jul 2007 09:26:49 -0400
In-Reply-To: <GLEGLKNLPLIGLKBPOJOLIEDKCOAA.sobbygenealogy@knology.net>


Orphans Trains

As a list admin and a county coordinator, I receive a monthly newsletter.  I snipped the business and a few other things out.  What’s left are a couple of articles packed with info and links.  There are quite a few links.  Hope you find a clue.  Let us know if you did and where.

kemis


The USGenWeb Project
N E W S
Volume 4, Number 5
June 2007

<snipped>

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
http://www.orphantrainriders.com <http://www.orphantrainriders.com/>;   

http://iagenweb.org/iaorphans/
http://www.kancoll.org/articles/orphans
http://www.genealinks.com/orphantrain.htm
http:/www.nebraskahistory.org/sites/mnh/orphans/ 
http://www.outfitters.com/~melissa/ot/ot.html
http://www.rootsweb.com/~mogrundy/orphans.html

Lists of Orphanages in the U.S.:  http://www.alhn.org/~ahtopabp/orphanages/early.html

Rootsweb page on how to research U.S., British, and Canadian Orphans: http://www.rootsweb.com/~rwguide/lesson31.htm?cj=1&o_xid=0001029688&o_lid=0001029688&o_xt=22470719 <http://www.rootsweb.com/~rwguide/lesson31.htm?cj=1&o_xid=0001029688&o_lid=0001029688&o_xt=22470719>;

For further information about orphan trains, check out Cyndi’s List for an extensive list of resources, both on-line and available through inter-library loan:
http://www.cyndislist.com <http://www.cyndislist.com/>;   

Orphan Train Heritage Society Membership: http://www.kesh.com/hnoh/AVOTART6B.html#OTHSA

Archives of Orphan Train Information: http://www.kesh.com/hnoh/AVOTART6B.html

To see a gravestone emblem of the Orphan Train Riders, scroll down the page:  www.pastmassters.com <http://www.pastmassters.com/>;


------------------------------------------------------
The views expressed in this newsletter are those of the contributors and newsletter staff, and are not necessarily those of the USGenWeb Project.
------------------------------------------------------
NEWSLETTER STAFF
Managing Editor: Denise Wells
Records Editor: Anne J Lex
Project Spotlights Editor: Darlene Anderson
Contributing Editor: Christine Sweet-Hart, CG
Graveside Chronicles Editor: Linda K Lewis
------------------------------------------------------
(c) 2007.  Permission to reprint articles from the USGenWeb Newsletter is granted unless specifically stated otherwise and provided that a copy of the citing newsletter or publication is forwarded to the Managing Editor at , the name of the author of such article is stated, followed by the statement:  Previously published in the USGenWeb Newsletter, June 2007, Volume 4, Number 5.



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