From Heartbreak to Hope: The Story of the Orphan Trains

History Untold about the Orphan Trains. It was a solution to help with the issue of New York City orphans that were living in overcrowded orphanages and in the streets. We'll explore the history of the orphan trains and tell the tales of a few orphan train riders.
Permission was obtained for clips.
Orphan Train Rider: Alice Bullis Ayler 1993: • Orphan Train Rider: Al...
Smoky Hills PBS - Placing Out: The Orphan Trains (2008): • Placing Out: The Orpha...
Special thanks to KZbinr: ‪@ThisIsTomsWorld‬, Margie and her son Michael, and my mom for letting me ask that question.

[@ThisIsTomsWorld]

Thank you for thinking of me and including in this....I LOVED this video....new knowledge is always a good thing, even if it tragic.

[@jimkarasek4046]

Kathy, thank you, thank you, thank you . Every video you ever made has been leading up to this. All I can say is wow.

[@burningsandsexploration3711]

I remember hearing about this in the 1960s when I was in high school. A movie was made about this in 1979. It was called "Orphan Train", directed by William Graham and aired on television on CBS. It is quite a story. A lot of farmers took children just for the purpose of farm workers.

[@RusticVentures]

During my research, I came across that movie. :-(

[@journeywithjay]

I'm gonna look for this movie now

[@michaelgoyette2815]

Excellent documentary. You should do more like it! It’s your calling.

[@lindamccaughey6669]

What a very sad story. Thank you for the share, think all countries have something to be ashamed of. Those poor children. P,ease take care

[@jenniferlydon7772]

I vaguely remember hearing about this years ago. Thank you for this video. Great job!

[@journeywithjay]

Never heard about these stories. These have to be one of the saddest stories ever told. Sooo sad, great job spreading the word on this

[@sonplusone7059]

Thank you so much for this video. You do these type of videos, on KZbin, the best. You have a gift on being able to create emotions in your videos that flood to the viewers. Very sad this happened, but there has been so many things that have also happened, in the past, that needs to be told. You did an amazing job, this video is A++++++. I was the first view on this video but couldn’t comment at that time because the comments were turned off. I came back to see if they were turned back on, to comment.

[@RusticVentures]

Thank you for that! There's some sort of glitch. I'll need to check it again in a bit.

[@lakefromeshippingcompany]

Superb work, Kathy! A very similar scheme operated here in Australia between 1913 and 1981. The stories didn't start to come out until one of the former children published a book in 2009.

[@RusticVentures]

Oh wow :-( Sounds like they tried sweeping that under the rug :-(

[@janemarinelli7843]

My Great Aunt and Uncle took in two children from the orphan train in North Dakota a brother and sister, their mother had died and the father could not take care of all the children. He subsequently place the youngest two on the orphan train as it was traveling thru North Dakota.

[@juliakenny3712]

There a great book called orphan train by Christina baker Kline. It’s fiction but based on this historical fact. I didn’t hear about this time in history until I read that book. Thanks for making this video to share this aspect of our country’s past

[@RusticVentures]

I came across that book while researching this. Christina has held a lot of presentations in regards to the book, but she also is passionate about the history. One book I may have to read.

[@samanthab1923]

Remembered finding out about it on an ep. of Unsolved Mysteries years ago. Some survivors were looking for siblings they had been separated from. Very sad.

[@RusticVentures]

Loved watching Unsolved Mysteries with Robert Stack. I don't remember that episode :-(

[@samanthab1923]

@@RusticVentures It’s on YT

[@worksmarter.notharder.1033]

Thank you for this. I had not heard of it.

[@RusticVentures]

Thank you for watching!

[@TheCynthiaRice]

Didn't know about of this.

[@DDExplores]

Beautiful video. You did so much research ! Thank you for telling this story, I had no idea this even existed .

[@RusticVentures]

Did you know this US history existed?

[@karenpacker8862]

I've seen a documentary about it and also a fiction book. Very sad and tragic. Glad you made this video.