Orphan Trains to the Midwest

From time to time, you may have read a reference to the "Orphan Trains" that brought over 200,000 youngsters to the Midwest. The easterns saw them as a drain on resources and potential troublemakers if they stayed, so a solution was sought. They came from the New York and Boston areas, from 1853 to 1930 and traveled the rails, being shown at each train stop platform along the rails west, where families could pick them for labor, love, and life.

Their history is slowly being repieced and retold through the Orphan Train project by the states where they arrived and lived. You can check sites for Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Indiana, although two of the links weren't functioning today. The Indiana site was further along- check it out at www.rootsweb.com/~inhamilt/otrdb.htm or the Wisconsin site at www.rootsweb.com/~wiorphan/people.htm