The Orphan Train: America’s Forgotten Children

[@dianestroud8006]

My grandmother was abandoned as a baby in a NYC hotel in 1906. She was put on an orphan train & adopted by my great grandparents near Williamsport, PA. She always wondered about her original family, but to my knowledge, she didn't find out anything. However, she was grateful for her new parents. Grandma married & had 2 sons, the younger of which was my dad. She had 13 grandchildren & many great grandchildren. Our family owes much to that orphan train that rescued my grandma so long ago.

[@historyandhearsay]

Awe, these are the stories I love to hear 🥰 So beautiful, so happy for your family that it all worked out so well!

[@raeannaruby8306]

My great grandpa was adopted at around the same time. He was adopted in Nebraska, I think. All we know of his childhood was that he had a twin sister he barely remembered.

[@historyandhearsay]

@@raeannaruby8306 awe 😭

[@desstanbridge8283]

I've heard of the orphan trains. Beautiful poem describing Lee. There will always be some people who abuse and treat children as slaves.

[@historyandhearsay]

@@desstanbridge8283 so very sad to say, but true 😭 some will always take advantage of the weaker ones

[@cindysemblante4411]

My Grandpa Joe was a world war 2 Veteran who grew up in an orphanage. His Mother had 12 children and couldn’t care for them all so sent the older children away. Eventually my Grand father was farmed out but never adopted by a family of farmers in Braxton county West Virginia. He was farm labor for them was given a roof over his head and food to eat in exchange for his work on the farm. After many years with this family they decided to move and Grandpa assumed he was part of the family and would be moving with them. On the day of the big move the family was all packed up and ready to go. There first stop was the orphanage that Granpa was left at when his mother abandoned him. After years of back breaking labor from sun up to sundown, after living under their roof for many years, eating food at their table and bonding with the farmers biological children they returned him like a sweater that was too tight or she’s that rubbed wrong. He never got over that betrayal. But he honorably served in the war, met and married my Grandma Nora and raised 5 children. They got bye on what Grandpa made working at the railroad. He grew his own farm and fed his family and neighbors gratefully. To my Grandfather family was everything. He loved his children, grandchildren and great grand children and all their spouses with a fierce protectiveness. He told me once that if I had something growing while I was sleeping I was gonna be okay. With his undying work ethic, fantastic sence of humor, great story telling skills and his 6 th grade education, he was the smartest and kindest man I have ever known

[@historyandhearsay]

😭So very sad for him, but I love how he turned it all around! I heard that about so many of the riders that were placed in families that saw them only as a servant, they valued family above all, once they were able to have their own! 🥰

[@christinecarpenter6670]

You said 1950s - I think you meant 1850s

[@eunicestone6532]

That is such a beautiful tribute to your grandpa Joe

[@BlackNoiseCat]

I’m so happy he was blessed with a true family of his own making ❤❤

[@LettersFromAFriend]

This made me cry... How can anybody treat a child like that! I am so glad he found a way to deal with his experience and turned the bad into good.

[@nicolehall694]

I knew a man who was on the Orphan Train. He was born in Russia and came to the US where he lived in poverty in New York City. He and his sister took the Orphan Train train and ended up with a farming family in Nebraska. They were raised with love and support, both growing up to be good people

[@historyandhearsay]

I love that! 💕

[@Angela-g1q4q]

Rare lucky ones

[@equarg]

Yes. Rare lucky 🍀 ones. A few were taken in by sicko’s and were assaulted and murdered. That’s why adapting is harder today and stricter. He and his sister is lucky to be a success story ❤.

[@equarg]

I read a WW2 story where a sick Ukrainian Mother during the war had to to tell her not even 5 year old son to flee and leave her due to the war chaos and Nazi invasion. She may of been injured. He survived for weeks on the edges of battle fields even stealing food rations from the dead. One day a kind German officer on a motorcycle with a side car found him, took pity on him, and took him to a Polish orphanage so he could get some food and shelter. Later a local Polish woman took a shine to him and temporarily fostered him till the end of the war. Once the war was over she took him to a ship bound to Canada so he could find a forever family there and grow up in a stable environment. When he got to the Canadian port, he sat down on the pier and began to sing traditional songs he still remembered since he was not sure what to do next. Welp. A farmer who had been from Ukraine overhead him singing. Apparently after the boy told his story the farmer promptly adapted him on the spot and raised him like a son.🥲 The man, about 85, wrote the story n Yahoo next to an article after the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. Everyone was begging him to write a book about happened…….. The details convinced me it was real.

[@historyandhearsay]

@@equarg wow! Beautiful story!

[@aliciasavage6801]

My great grandfather was on the Orphan train. He was one of the ones treated very very poorly, only purchased as labor and never even allowed to eat with the family, only the left overs and forced to sleep on the floor in the kitchen at night. He was frequently abused as well as neglected. He ran away when he was 16 and joined the army.

[@historyandhearsay]

😭 so so sad! I just understand how people could treat children this way!

[@equarg]

That apparently happened a lot. A few were raped and murdered. This is why adapting is harder and stricter today.

[@hairballjones8451]

​​@@equargand sadly some who would be Great Parents simply can't afford it. I know of a church family a generation back whose family there helped them to realize their dream. But it surely would not have happened otherwise.😢

[@1whitkat]

My Granddad and his brother came from Wales when he was six, his brother twelve. There Mother remarried and didn't want them. My great uncle found an apprenticeship as a joiner. My Granddad was put on a train, they didn't see each other again until they were grown. He told us about watching little ones being adopted by the rich, they wanted babies. The older ones were taken by farmers, then wanted free laborers. My Granddad was one of the fortunate ones. He and his soon to be sister were adopted at the same time. She was three, he was almost eight. They were blessed in that my great grandparents wanted children because they wanted a family. They were given a good life in a loving family. Not all of the orphan train children were so lucky.

[@historyandhearsay]

I love hearing the positive stories!💕

[@HensInTheHoller]

My Great Grandfather was a child of the orphan trains. His mother died of a neck abscess and he was put on a train to the midwest, just like you said. He was the last child adopted on the stand, and spent his youth working on a farm. After that he joined the military and fought in France during WWI. He was wounded and met his wife in hospital there, and ended up leading a very rich life thereafter. Thanks you for this video!

[@historyandhearsay]

@@HensInTheHoller awe! 💕 thanks for sharing! And you are welcome! :)

[@sandralouth3103]

My great great grandparents adopted a child from one of the orphan trains. She was much loved and cherished daughter.

[@historyandhearsay]

@@sandralouth3103 I love to hear that!

[@sarahvanorden670]

When I was a young girl, I read the Samantha books from American Girl, and I remembered reading about her kidnapping Nellie and her sisters from the orphanage to avoid them being separated by the orphan train because only Nellie was going to be sent on it. I had never heard positive stories about it, but this video is wonderful and informative, that poem had me in tears.

[@historyandhearsay]

I read that too! I had forgotten about that!! I’m so glad you enjoyed it 🥰

[@karacoconutag]

That's how I learned about the orphan train too!

[@wintersprite]

I love American Girl! I’m an adult collector and have a Samantha doll. My mom has both Samantha and Nellie. Felicity was my first AG that I got in 6th grade. All my others I’ve gotten as an adult.

[@historyandhearsay]

@@wintersprite I used to LOVE AG! Yall are making me want to introduce my girls to them! 🥰

[@sarahvanorden670]

@@wintersprite I collected them until I was probably 20, and I didn’t get my own Samantha until 16

[@traciwalls7099]

You had mentioned at the end of the video about other means of children being sent to other families. My grandmother was not an Orphan Train baby. Instead, she was "farmed out." She was born out of wedlock and, in the early 1930s, found a husband who didn't want her kids around. Instead, she was traded for a cow. Yes, a cow. In turn, she was sent to work for neighboring farms as a domestic. At one place, she received a nasty scar from an old-fashioned clothes iron. She met my grandfather, fell in love, and as soon as she was legally able, they married and he made sure the rest of her life was the best of her life as long as he could. She was a tough grandma, but she loved and defended us with a ferocity bar none. ❤

[@historyandhearsay]

Such a beautiful of someone who turned things around! 💕

[@amberhastings5612]

My great grandfather was an orphan in England and sent to a dairy farm - I imagine his life was grim there, immigrating to Canada in 1914. He never discussed his experience other than he detested milk and used hot tea on his cereal instead. Thank you for sharing this history 💕

[@historyandhearsay]

@@amberhastings5612 oh wow! 🤯 that does sound like it must have been a bad experience to hate milk that much afterwards! Probably held a lot of bad memories for him 😞

[@dinkster1729]

I have a friend whose grandparents had a dairy farm. It's weird. None of family like milk, not her mother, not her brother and neither does she. They always say that they get their calcium from other sources. Maybe, the hard working of carrying for dairy cows turns them off milk for ensuing generations. My mother and father grew up on farms. My grandfather was a grain farmer in Alberta and my father grew up on a subsistence farm. We always got our milk and love it. My mother said once that if the family's cow didn't have milk because she hadn't given birth they didn't get milk. She saw it as a deprivation.

[@rebeccabonser162]

My great grandmother was an orphen train kid, no one knows much about her. I beleive she was used as a worker by the family that took her in. She became pregnant with my grandmother after she was abused by the family's son. She was around 14 or so when grandma was born, and she gave her up for adoption. After that she was either sent away, or left on her own. We do know that she had had another child at some point through a genealogy family tree website, and had given them up for adoption as well. The only other things we know was that she sold handpainted holiday cards, and that her last name was Mitchel or Mitchell. Sorry about my grammar, I was the worst student in my english class.

[@historyandhearsay]

So very sad for her! Thank you for sharing her story with us!💕

[@TootlesTart]

Not in Buffalo, NY by any chance?

[@newgabe09]

Nothing wrong with your writing, and thanks for sharing about your ancestor's difficult life.

[@susanwright4414]

😅❤your grammar is great.

[@Emy53]

In the late 60's, me and my sisters were enrolled in a program called, "Fresh Air Fund". We would ride a train from Brooklyn to Grand Central Station, and sent to various family's for a two week get away. I went to Boston, MA. My day consisted of be a playmate for other children that wanted a playmate. That's what I remember. After the two weeks were done, I was transported back to my family. Once, I remained with a family for several months of school, in my 3rd grade. I was homesick, so they sent me home. I have beautiful memories of a friend named Vickie, and her brother Jon. We stayed connected for many years, then lost touch.

[@historyandhearsay]

@@Emy53wow! I’ve never heard of that!

[@kw4503]

At that time that was pretty comon in Germany. After WW2 (late40s- early 50s) they send children to the Alps or the sea for several month, to become healty and strong.

[@LeighIR]

My Father in Law used to tell stories of kids coming to his farm/carpentry shop via the Fresh Air Fund. He'd talk about making sure the "city kids" had fun and get to do things they'd never get to do at home. This was in Pennsylvania.

[@HavenMurphy-t1r]

I can't imagine this happening today

[@therealopaartist]

My great grandma lived in Alabama pre WW II She had a garden and would sometimes ‘accidentally’ forget to lock the gate so the neighborhood kids could get food. It was decently big and she canned her own food and stuff so she always had plenty, but some of the neighbors were too embarrassed or proud to admit they needed help.

[@historyandhearsay]

😭What a sweet woman she must have been!!!💕

[@therealopaartist]

@@historyandhearsay by the time I got around to meeting her, she was a very eccentric old lady. And for some reason obsessed with birds? She had this absolutely terrifying clock with birds on it in her kitchen that went off every hour with a random bird noises. Imagine getting a drink in the middle of the night and you hear a bird scream at you in the kitchen.

[@historyandhearsay]

@@therealopaartist I knew someone with a clock like that 😆

[@dinkster1729]

@@therealopaartist Some people like birds and some people don't, I guess.

[@juliejunkyardx]

My great-grandma was almost put on the Orphan Train with her 3 siblings in Lake Charles, Louisiana. My great-great grandmother fell down the stairs and died, and my great-great grandfather quickly remarried a woman who only wanted to keep the youngest sibling (an infant) and wanted the rest of them sent away. GG grandpa agreed, but luckily gave his first wife’s parents the ultimatum of taking them in before he took them to the church for drop off. My great-great-great grandparents didn’t hesitate. GGG grandma even snatched the baby out of his arms and slammed the door in his face. Thank God for Grandmere Liz and Grandpere Gabe.

[@historyandhearsay]

@@juliejunkyardx oh wow! That is such an amazing story! 💕

[@c4canal]

My great grandfather and his siblings were not sent out on the trains, but did grow up in an orphanage during the 30s. They had stories about scraping oatmeal from the garbage bins because they were so hungry. They also had a story about how the orphanage would farm them out as free labor to local farmers and that they actually enjoyed it because they knew they'd get to have plenty of food while there, the farmers would feed them.

[@historyandhearsay]

@@c4canal 🥰 I love that the farmers treated them well!

[@dinkster1729]

@@historyandhearsay They were workers, not having the time of their lives. Of course, not that long ago, children dropped out of school at grade 8 and went to work. My father at 15 left his family to work in the lumber woods for the winter. That would have been in 1933. He'd have been working around his rural home in northern New Brunswick for a couple of years before that.

[@catherineeicke9429]

My great grandfather was one of the children of the orphan trains. He was sent from Pennsylvania to Kansas. As a young man, he joined the Navy because it meant he never had to see Kansas again.

[@historyandhearsay]

@@catherineeicke9429 oh wow! I guess that means his experience was a bad one 😭💕

[@aliciasavage6801]

sounds similar to my great grandfather.

[@faithphillips4703]

My grandma’s parents took in a girl off the orphan train. She lived in Peabody, Kansas!

[@katherinethegreat]

Can't imagine having to live in Kansas 😮not without losing my mind anyhow...

[@ronaldturner4849]

Somewhere over the rainbow, bluebirds 🐦fly. Somewhere over the rainbow, why oh why can't I ? 🌪️

[@gailbest]

I knew an older man back in the 1970s. He was adopted off an orphan train as an infant. He was adopted by a family who wanted an extra farm hand. He had a life of hard work and eventually ran away when he was a teenager. He searched for his parents and he found the records. They were deceased now but he found out they had given him up because they were not married and the father was going off to war. But They eventually married and had 5 more children. His siblings welcomed him with open arms. They flew him to NY from TX for a reunion. Happy ending to a sad story.

[@historyandhearsay]

@@gailbest awe! I love that! 💕

[@wanderinghistorian]

What a wonderful video. This is history done right. The poem had me in tears. "They showered him with so much love he couldn't fight back" is such a great quote.

[@historyandhearsay]

Thank you! And that got me too! 😭🥰

[@annekellar7627]

I loved the poem too!

[@runningfromabear8354]

Same concept in England with Bernardo Homes. Only my Great-grandmother was struggling and let a son stay with Bernardo Homes, they said her oldest child could stay overnight while she sorted out housing. Came for him the next morning and he'd been shipped out of the country on the equivalent of an orphan train. They had lied to her. My family searched for him for decades. He was worked to death on a farm. Literally, worked to death. Many of these organizations lacked oversight and failed to check on the welfare of these children. People make it sound so rosy but these organizations were brutal.

[@historyandhearsay]

@@runningfromabear8354 that is so sad 😭 I never understood the kids whose parents really were coming back for them - leaving them while they were in the hospital or something like that… I never understood why they didn’t give the parents a chance? It makes you wonder if some of the organizations possibly were selling the children… or getting some type of kick back, because why were they in such a rush? So sad either way! Too much romancing of the past for sure!

[@emmimiller3677]

​@@historyandhearsay can't speak for America, but typically within the English workhouse system and the later Barnados children's homes, parents would very often say they would be back once they had tended to a sick relative, acquired a job and lodgings, sought medical care... and never return. It stopped the kids fighting it so much if they felt the parent was coming back, and it made the parents feel less judged for abandoning the child. With so many parents lying to the children and the homes, it becomes clearer why those who took in children didn't wait: because it wad impossible to sort out who was genuinely coming back. There wasn't an expectation of temporarily leaving your child, the services were meant to be there for the destitute, so the assumption is just that they weren't coming back.

[@helgardhossain9038]

Yes, never forget that these "special organisations" who have a rather large turnover of small children require fresh meat, as well ... Things are only now coming to light. But these things have been going on since centuries. 😢

[@dinkster1729]

@@historyandhearsay Also, why wasn't there better pay so families could stay united and prosper? There's a lot of prejudice against poor families even today. Actually, in Ontario, the situation is getting worse.

[@Lizerator]

My mother's cousin was a orphan train child. He did very well and was grateful for his adoption.

[@historyandhearsay]

@@Lizerator so happy to hear that it was a good experience for him!💕

[@gaylehooper36]

I am 73 and was adopted through the Salvation Army. There were women who for a small price would take care of the children who were given to SA sew they could be "put up". The mothers were allowed to see the children. My Aunt Gladys took in babies, and I was one of them. She had 3 girls of her own who could help after school. Glades had an idea thar her brother and wife could take a baby since their daughter was married and he made good money. I ended up being adopted by Gladys's brother and wife. I was brought into their home when I was 3 months old. The adoption wasn't until I was 5. My sister and her husband had to co-sign because they were in their 50's. My sister is still alive and is 98. Our B-days are 25 years and 2 weeks apart.

[@historyandhearsay]

@@gaylehooper36 oh wow! ☺️💕

[@SherryHill-k5y]

I know of another SA story. In my city, the SA had a hospital for unwed.mothers. I only heard about it but lived close by as a kid. Across the street from me was an older couple with a daughter my age. The girl was not real friendly but I would learn why years later from her on social media. After she was born in the SA hospital. two weeks later her mother moved them both to an apartment. Her.mother had a boyfriend but weeks later.my friend's mother was killed. She told me there was no proof about him as a suspect. The older couple I mentioned had adopted her after the horrid incident. I was so glad to know that she would later marry and have 5 children. We still keep in touch even though she lives out of state. She still misses her adoptive parents and their old house but it's vacated. In this incident, something good came out of something horrible.

[@historyandhearsay]

@@SherryHill-k5y 💕

[@SherryHill-k5y]

@@historyandhearsay Thank you.

[@dinkster1729]

@@SherryHill-k5y My mother was a case worker. One of her cases was a girl whose father had killed her mother. He was found to be unfit to stand trial and sent to a mental institution for the rest of his life probably. She had younger siblings. A couple as found who could adopt the younger children, but they didn't want to adopt her because she was old enough to remember her previous life. She ended up with the child protection agency where my mother worked. Can there be a happy ending to this grim story? When my mother and father celebrated an important wedding anniversary with family and friends at a local hotel, guess who was the manager of this hotel? That girl! She introduced herself to my mother. My mother was glad that she had done so well.

[@therealopaartist]

Imagine kicking your kid out and then just a few years later, AS HE’S LEAVING THE STATE ON A TRAIN FOR ORPHANS GOING WHO KNOWS WHERE, being like “here’s your brother take care of him, write me when you get there!”

[@historyandhearsay]

@@therealopaartist I can’t imagine how bad it would have to be to drive a parent to that point! 😭 I can’t imagine feeling I had to send my child away or keep them & risk them starving to death, that choice has to be gut wrenching!

[@Delbel_Giggles91]

I hope he actually got to be reunited with his brothers.

[@debharshaw1882]

O​@@historyandhearsay

[@thesparklezgirl5030]

My great aunt was kidnapped after her mom died in childbirth. Her dad searched for years and eventually found her but her new parents prevented him from ever speaking with her.

[@historyandhearsay]

@@thesparklezgirl5030 that’s so horrible 😭

[@TracyMcCool-jo8tk]

Im sorry

[@thesparklezgirl5030]

@@historyandhearsay It is a depressing topic in the family. Especially the part surrounding the death of her mother. Only one family member is still alive who remembers when my great aunt was born and even at that she was pretty young herself. It was a horrific birth, that's why the nurses told her husband that the baby died along with the mother and he believed it, but he found out that wasn't true only a few days after the baby was shipped off on the orphan train.

[@debbyrennock8435]

I met a woman who rode the train to Wisconsin. She saw a younger brother taken off stops before she got off and was adopted. She never forgot him and never found him again. I met her when she was in her lare 70s, and she wondered how he faired and even wondered if he still lived. 😢 She and her brother were given different names by the handlers, and the adopted families would give their new child a different name. She remembered her birth name and changed it back when older. She knew her brother's name, but not the newest one. So, she knew she wouldn't ever find him. How horribly sad...😢

[@historyandhearsay]

That is so sad!😭

[@blinda9548]

Oh no.. :(

[@ashleyfarrow2175]

I’m a 6th grade history teacher and I recently discovered your podcast. I am obsessed! You are such a great story teller!

[@historyandhearsay]

@@ashleyfarrow2175 awe! Thank you so much! ☺️ Ive always loved learning about history, but didn’t study it past grade school, so I’m trying to learn all the things now :)

[@dalet9207]

@@ashleyfarrow2175 I’m 75. We did learn about these ways children who were orphaned were sent to another place or lived in orphanages. As you mentioned society often doesn’t start out with “the best method “ of dealing with social situations like this but it often does learn from them . I know Daughters of Charity operated “homes for unwed mothers “ all the way to the 1980s. Now there is less social stigma with being an unwed mother and the alternative of legal abortion.

[@stormbarnet7176]

Awwww god that poem pulled my heart strings! Those poor kids. I'm so glad Lee got a good family in the end...

[@historyandhearsay]

Same!😭💕

[@MidMo4020]

23:04 I grew up with a girl whose great grandfather was on the orphan train. Early 1900’s. According to her dad, the guy was an awful person. BUT he also said that “they picked him out because he was bigger than the other ones” they “worked him like a slave”. Said they made him sleep in the barn in summertime. She had an album of pictures from the time. Those must’ve been awful times. My great grandpa got traded for a mule. To the next farm over. He went to school and saw his brothers all the time. But the neighbors needed the help, and could afford to feed him. His family needed a mule. Made sense. Mules were as necessary as tractors on a farm.

[@historyandhearsay]

@@MidMo4020 so sad 😭

[@dinkster1729]

People were very practical back then. I think my grandmother always resented my great-grandfather for sending her to another family as a paid helper after elementary school. She never went to high school. When my mother who was very bright needed to do her grade 12 at a boarding school, my grandmother who could have used my mother's help at her boarding house / restaurant in a small prairie town wrote a letter to a private religious school and got my mother accepted there. My mother worked in the kitchen and when she learned to type, helped in the office to pay her way. My mother completed high school there with very good marks. She also completed university after the war on the Canadian equivalent of the GI Bill. My mother said to me once about the Depression on the Canadian Prairies, "Times were tough!" I guess they were.

[@leightoncroft]

Im in child welfare and in my state we have two parents waiting in jail for their court date for doing exactly this. Do u know if other ppl knew about ur grandfather’s life? Did they care?

[@marymagnuson7275]

My husband's grandmother was given to an orphanage when her mother died. She was taken out as a laborer by rancher in NE. As an adult she traced and contacted most of her siblings but one little sister disappeared.

[@historyandhearsay]

So cool that they were able to find each other! Im betting the little sisters name was changed, if she was taken very young, she may have been raised as their natural born child and never even knew she was adopted. That seemed to happen often with the young ones, if the person was taking them to raise and not as a laborer (as seemed to be the case with young ones, since they couldn't work yet)

[@RubySlippers-j4q]

My ex husband's grandmother was on the Orphan Trains. They were in one of the southern states. The family got sick, I'm pretty sure she said typhoid. The parents and some of the children died and the remaining children, still like 8 or 10 of them, got sent north on the trains.

[@historyandhearsay]

@@RubySlippers-j4q oh wow, so very sad! I hope that they eventually found happiness & peace. I read that some of the children who never found families, had a lot of children, when they grew up, because they wanted to “make their own family”

[@emilybowne6043]

From what my dad told me, one of my great-great-great-greatgrandfather was one of the orphans aho rode the train. Sadly, his experience was terrible. He married, had children but abandoned them and hitched with an ancestor of mine who was basically a wild woman. On learning about this, this was when I became more interested in this bit of history. Thank you for acknowledging that it wasn't always a good experience for everyone. Your video was good

[@historyandhearsay]

@@emilybowne6043 I’m so sorry to hear that :( you are welcome!

[@bettyanndingman5831]

❤​@@historyandhearsay

[@allisonyoung3420]

My grandfather was on an orphan train. Brought to the New York Foundling Hospital in New York by his aunt as a newborn in 1903. Boarded a train in 1907. Adopted in southern Louisiana that same year. There’s a wonderful museum in Opelousas, LA that has many pictures, artifacts and stories from this time in history. My grandfather was never able to trace his biological family, though his efforts may have been few when he was still alive. It would be interesting to find family just to know his full story as to why he was brought to the orphanage in the first place. Maybe someday! ❤

[@historyandhearsay]

@@allisonyoung3420 I’m from Louisiana originally and visited that museum on our way in, when I went home to visit (I had moved to Michigan for about few years)We enjoyed learning about it & making this video made me want to go back with fresh eyes! I want to see if there are any museums near me in Texas! I often wonder if anyone from my family was on the train & that’s how we ended up in Louisiana (my dads side is Irish) but I haven’t found anything yet - though I recently found (while researching records for this video). that 3-4 generations back they were in Oklahoma, which I never knew - so now I’m really curious! My grandfathers family was a crop share farmer in Louisiana & that’s the furthers back I had known before (great grandparents) You should try ancestry.com. To continue the search! I was shocked by how much just popped up from their tips and suggestions that I never knew!

[@melindadurchholz3738]

There were followup visits months later for some that rode the train. In some case they were removed if there appeared to be improper treatment.

[@historyandhearsay]

@@melindadurchholz3738 yes! I talk about that in the video. Luckily they were able to move some of the children, hopefully to better homes, but sad that some had to be moved so often…. Sounds like many weren’t ready for the challenges that probably came with taking in a traumatized / grieving child 😔

[@melindadurchholz3738]

Yes, I didn’t realize that you thoroughly covered that a few minutes later! I hadn’t finished the video.😊​@@historyandhearsay

[@historyandhearsay]

@@melindadurchholz3738 I do the same thing, comment before I finish watching 😆 so I totally get it!

[@judyzwemke9305]

Sad but true but you nailed this story. I am from Iowa & heard about the "O" train as an adult. (Never in the Iowa history class, as far as I can remember🤔) My grandfather was in an C. orphanage. His mother, alcoholic) & divorced she put him there. He ran away 2 times (abuse) The 3rd time he (in grade school) ran & they never got him back. He lived on the streets but never talked about it any of this. He wasnt on the train but quite a story none the less. Loved the poem. Great job.

[@historyandhearsay]

Oh wow! So sad, thanks for sharing! And thank you! Glad you enjoyed it!

[@Lunarapparition88]

My mother was an abandoned baby...she was left in the backseat of a car wrapped up in some man's T-shirt 😢. My mom broke the cycle and had three girls that to this day she cares for ❤ thank you to my grandpa for taking her in as an infant and raising her to the best of his abilities. Also thank you to my mom for taking care of all three of us like she did ❤ I love you both ❤

[@historyandhearsay]

@@Lunarapparition88 So sad for her, but very happy to hear she turned it around for her children 💕

[@Lunarapparition88]

@@historyandhearsay Yes she definitely broke the cycle and she's my hero. I wouldn't be here today if she wasn't the mother that she is. I have severe depression anxiety. I've been hospitalized for it for slower slide if you know what I mean. And she was the one person that stood by me through everything. Even through my addiction. She just wanted me to be okay. I'm now going on 3 years clean and back with my family and my son. Thanking God everyday I have the family I have because they stepped in when I couldn't be a mother and took my son. I'm now able to say I'm sober and I am becoming the mother that I know that I can be. I raised him for the first 6 years of his life. Perfectly fine and then my addiction really messed my life up but she was there through everything. I don't know how I'll ever be able to repay her

[@historyandhearsay]

@@Lunarapparition88 what an amazing mom! 💕

[@Lunarapparition88]

@@historyandhearsay Thank you! I think she's pretty great. I just hope that I can be that kind of super Mom for my son. I'm a single mom and he's turning 13 and I can definitely see where my mom was coming from all those years ago LOL

[@historyandhearsay]

@@Lunarapparition88You will be! I think overcoming hardships in life, makes us better parents!

[@absurdartist6346]

I did an entire report on the orphan trains in college and I was absolutely heartbroken and horrified by what I read

[@historyandhearsay]

@@absurdartist6346 so sad 😭

[@dinkster1729]

Today, there aren't that many children born. Back then, there were so many children born that nobody knew what to do with them if the father was killed or the mother. Even when families were intact, children often had to go out to work at an early age. They didn't get the education that is so necessary today.

[@rosameryrojas-delcerro1059]

I actually have known about the Orphan trains since childhood. I was told that one of my great grandfathers "rode" one in the late 19-teens. Many people on that side of the family mentioned it, but no one remembers who specifically told them. However when I began researching my own genealogy in 2005 I discovered it was untrue. He was raised in an orphanage (NE) but was never from NY, and neither were his parents. It was true that his mom (immigrant from Europe) died of TB when great grandad was three, a younger brother was 1, and thier dads (not an immigrant) shenanigans was in several articles in the local paper, resulting in my great grandad and his younger brother being put in an orphanage. That included domestic violence (DV) against great grandads mom. Several years later when shenani-dad was out of prison (not for the DV), he went to IA and married another woman and had 4 more kids, never bothering with my great grandad and his younger brother in the orphanage. Great grandad had to leave the orphanage at 18, so his younger brother snuck out and they left NE altogether. Shenani-dad died in 1944 and great grandad in 1979, never really talking about his situation at the orphanage or his parents. He likely only knew his moms name from his birth certificate. When I asked, none of his kids etc knew her name, they knew shenani-dads first name though which was odd.

[@historyandhearsay]

That is so wild! How cool that you were able to trace all of back about your family!

[@rosameryrojas-delcerro1059]

@@historyandhearsay It takes years sometimes. I have a few branches traced back to the 1600's...

[@phoenixdavida8987]

"Shenani-dad" 😂 Good one 👍

[@rosameryrojas-delcerro1059]

@@phoenixdavida8987 What else can you call a dad like that without swearing up and down social media??

[@oh2sail]

It was so emotional for me to hear that poem. I also grew up hating adults. They were useless, uncaring, cold, and I was better off without them. I never got a family like Lee did, but I am now a 70 yo woman, and I created my own family, full of kisses and caring. My own children saved my life. The next best thing.

[@historyandhearsay]

@@oh2sail It’s so heart warming when people are able to take their heart break & create their own family, full of love!💕

[@kayleew.4453]

My aunt was sent over on a plane filled with orphans from Korea, she was the youngest. Only about 13 weeks old. Similar concept wrapped a different way. This was about 50 years ago. There was so many children and only two tenders on that plane.

[@historyandhearsay]

@@kayleew.4453 wow!

[@colletteseders2874]

Thank you for sharing this perspective on the American orphan trains. Before this movement began, there were orphaned and abandoned children sent to N America from Ireland, England, Scotland, and countries of Europe. In the late 1700s a ship carrying orphans as well as families from Ireland was wrecked in the St Lawrence River. There were children rescued from the ship. Many children were adopted by French Canadian families, and many of them insisted on keeping their Irish surnames. Today there are many families with Irish names in towns all over Quebec.

[@historyandhearsay]

@@colletteseders2874 wow! I never knew about that! That is so amazing! My dads side of the family is Irish & I wonder if any of them rode the train & that’s how they ended up in Louisiana

[@towanda1067]

Many Irish immigrants went to Quebec during the famine years. 5,000 of them died in a 6th month period on Grosse Isle, the intake island for Canadian immigration. Undoubtedly many Irish children were orphaned during this time.

[@historyandhearsay]

@@towanda1067 so cool to know, I heard about immigration there, but never knew the name of the intake island!

[@dinkster1729]

@@towanda1067 There were survivors who came to Kingston, Ontario and, then, died here. That's why the 2 hospitals here were founded--to look after the many Irish refugees from the Potato Famine. Apparently, some Irish Protestants living in the area from an early period helped the Irish Roman Catholic families out when they arrived. My husband's ancestors may have been some of these families.

[@dinkster1729]

@@historyandhearsay it's famous. Apparently, the ships bringing the Irish refugees wouldn't be allowed into American ports, if they had sick patients on board, but they could be brought to Grosse Island because it was British territory. That's how so many Irish refugees ended up on ships waiting to be off-loaded on Grosse Isle--Big Island and that's why so many of them died on Grosse Isle. I think it's a national historic site today. Actually, a lot of intermarriage occurred between Irish Roman Catholics and French-Canadian Roman Catholics because they were of the same religion. A French teacher of mine had the last name Donnelly, but his father was from Belleville, Ontario originally and he was not descended from some Irish ancestor. He couldn't speak English though because he grew up in a very French-Canadian town, Riviere du Loup.

[@janetd4862]

My father once told me about my great grandmother. This must have happened in the 1880s. They were living in the Midwest (possibly around Lincoln, Nebraska) when her mother died unexpectedly. Her father couldn’t deal with his two little girls, so he packed up and moved back to Ohio. So here are two little girls, maybe 4 and 6 years old. They get sent off to live with farm families in the western part of the state - I think they were separated. Maude (my great grandma) was their slave labor. At age 12 or 13, she left and married my great grandpa. My own children learned about the orphan trains in school (I had not heard of them), and it all sounded very happy and charitable. Though some of the children may have been well cared for, many were seen as free labor, and given the minimum they needed to survive. They were ill-prepared for farm life, and many of those children had been living on the streets, and didn’t take to being “domesticated”. It may have seemed like a good program for ridding the streets of the cities of all those children, but it didn’t do the children any favors.

[@historyandhearsay]

@@janetd4862 so sad!

[@志瑜杨]

This is crazy, infuriating, depressing, and heartwarming at the same time.

[@historyandhearsay]

@@志瑜杨 yes! 😭💕

[@MaineCoonMama18]

My great great great grandmother narrowly escaped being in this kind of situation thanks to her stepmother's family taking her in. She was born in New Hampshire in the 1840s. Her mother died when she was a baby. Her father remarried and then died when she was 8. It took a lot of digging for me to even track down her parents. The people she was living with in the 1850 census turned out to be her step-grandmother and step-uncle. She got married in California in the late 1850s. I think she'd traveled there in the mid 1850s with another step-uncle & his family (who were living in the same area as her in 1860). It was a long time ago, but I feel very grateful to that family.

[@historyandhearsay]

So cool that you were able to track all of that down!

[@nadiabarrett5195]

Loved learning about this and I think you gave a very balanced presentation of the situation. It's easy to look with our modern eyes and criticize the shortcomings of what was actually revolutionary at the time. I think the only right response is to be in awe of those who went against the grain to try to make a positive difference.

[@historyandhearsay]

@@nadiabarrett5195 so glad you enjoyed it! I totally agree! They were doing the best they could at the time, and for some it really turned out changing their lives in a positive way 💕

[@naotholomi]

That poem brought me to tears like a baby and made me want to hug my two sons (7 & 9) extra tight

[@historyandhearsay]

@@naotholomi same for me!!🥰

[@judithsibley3067]

My SIL’s mom was placed on the Orphan Train. It stopped in Alexandria, LA to refuel. She decided she wasn’t going any further so she got off & started walking. She walked about 15 miles to Hot Wells, LA (very primitive at that time). A Native American man walked out of the woods & took the 13 year old as his wife. They had 6 children. Each day they walked out of the woods to the “hot springs” for a bath. When the State decided to build a resort (like Hot Springs, Arkansas) & a lake (Cotile Lake) the State paid the father the price of 3 acres of land + a Jim Walter home for ALL the land he “owned” (100’s of acres)!!! My dad worked for the company building the lake & my oldest brother met the eldest daughter, fell in love & married. They were never able to have children though.

[@historyandhearsay]

@@judithsibley3067 oh wow! Now that’s quite a story! So wild! I went to the orphan train museum in Louisiana once, creating this video made me want to go back!

[@judithsibley3067]

@@historyandhearsay Yes, it was much better told by one of them!!

[@NeighborhoodOfBlue]

How many children were worked to death on these farms, we'll never know. Poverty is poverty. Orphans have no one to miss them when they're gone. This is ugly, no matter what gilding you put on it.

[@historyandhearsay]

@@NeighborhoodOfBlue yes, a very sad situation. The only bright spot is the ones that were taken in & loved, those were saved from a life of certain death on the streets of New York. But for the rest, so very sad! 😞 I will never understand how people could treat children so badly.

[@equarg]

@@historyandhearsay Children were a commodity. Like a car, use it, then dispose of it when done.

[@patriciarhymes4492]

I had read and studied about The Orphan Trains many years ago, in my teens, now late 60s. I have always been an avid reader and serious history buff. You covered the history of the trains well and did justice to all involved. The poem was awesome and touching! Thank you for covering The Orphan Trains. It is a part of our history that never should be forgotten.🚂🚂🚂

[@historyandhearsay]

@@patriciarhymes4492 thank you so much! I agree! We must not let this be forgotten!💕

[@auroraasleep]

My grandmother & her sister were in a catholic orphanage after my great-grandmother's husband left her. She took the baby & hid in a closet all day after the nuns asked if she wanted to go on a nice train ride. At this point we aren't sure if Aunt Grace died or if she was sent out west on a train. Grandma said she was killed by a nurse, and there are records of one of the nurses being arrested & put in an asylum for murdering babies, so it's entirely possible this was the case, but it's also possible that the orphanage just told my great grandmother that her youngest died and she was really adopted out. My great-grandmother, her mother & aunt broken into the orphanage in the middle of the night & stole my grandmother back. Grandma said that while she was in the orphanage kids would just be shipped out all at once. She was about 5 or 6 when this happened, and it would have been the 1910's from Utica NY area. I didn't know the orphan trains were a thing until recently, but the more I learn the more I hope to find that Aunt Grace may have survived & had a happy life. My poor grandmother mourned her sister her whole life.

[@historyandhearsay]

@@auroraasleep I can’t imagine how hard that had to have been for your grandmother! I hope her sister was adopted out into a loving family! Such a harsh time period for children!

[@auroraasleep]

@@historyandhearsay she told me she remembered fearing the new clothes because that might mean she'd be sent away. She also couldn't stand closed doors because the nuns would lock her in. There were no doors in her house except to the outside.

[@historyandhearsay]

@@auroraasleep 😭 it’s so heartbreaking how that stuff just stays with you for your entire life!

[@Monipenny1000]

Wow, Thank you! I never heard about this. So heartbreaking and cruel of the adults of that time to look down on these sweet innocent children without any care. Truly heartbreaking.

[@historyandhearsay]

So sad! Though some did take them and love them as their own! I only wish they had ALL done that, or not taken children to begin with!

[@michaeleafroemke6698]

I just discovered you and your videos and they are so interesting and informative. You do such a good job of delievering the story. New favorite channel

[@historyandhearsay]

Thank you so much!!! :)

[@robbieg416]

My great grandfather was on one of these trains about the year 1910. He died before I was old enough to ask him about this experience. Thanks so much for doing this video. It brings a lot of context to my ancestor's life.

[@historyandhearsay]

@@robbieg416 you are welcome! So glad you enjoyed it!

[@AaronD87]

Wow you did an incredible job on this one. Lots of intricate details that really tell the story. The poem at the end was a nice touch too.

[@historyandhearsay]

Thank you :)

[@christiamccubbins3251]

I remember my momma saying that she was on a Orphan Train when she was only 4 years old, and remembered her given name.

[@historyandhearsay]

@@christiamccubbins3251 oh wow! Do you know what year she was born? Where was she sent?

[@lauradougherty8426]

My dad’s mom so my grandma was on a adoption train during the Spanish flu epidemic. I never knew until long after she passed away so I’m looking forward to seeing this video and learning.

[@historyandhearsay]

@@lauradougherty8426 that’s so interesting! I was wondering how that went during the Spanish flu, but I didn’t look into it preparing for this video

[@lauradougherty8426]

@@historyandhearsay it’s OK. It was some thing I had didn’t know growing up about my grandma. I did find out about it until I was in my late 20s. The odd thing is my mom’s mom is also adopted, but never wrote on adoption train and was in an orphanage in New York City.

[@historyandhearsay]

@@lauradougherty8426 oh wow! So interesting! So many of the comments on this video makes me think that more people need to write their family’s story into a book! I find it all so intriguing!

[@flamem9260]

My grandfather and his sister were put on the Orphan Train in 1913 from New York to Missouri. Luckily, they were adopted in Missouri by a sheriff and his wife. They had a good life growing up. My great aunt could remember some of what her prior life was like (as her biological last name [Fuller] and such), but my grandfather didn't. He didn't like to talk about his time on the Orphan Train, because he didn't know how or why his parents would give him up.

[@historyandhearsay]

@@flamem9260 that’s must have been so painful for him! But I’m glad they had a good life 💕

[@Th1nk1n6]

Thanks for delving into this particular subject. Seen numerous videos on this, and while not even a quarter into your video, learning a number of new details.

[@historyandhearsay]

@@Th1nk1n6 you are welcome! And I’m so glad to hear that! :)

[@janiefox3458]

This was by far the best Podcast on any subject I've ever heard. I love history and though I knew of the Orphan Trains -- your Podcast has filled in some details that I hadn't heard. I was raised in a rural area of western Maryland and there was a farmer who had "fosters" on his farm and worked those girls like hired hands. I didn't have the best opinion of the foster institutions because of this - - I remember they were beautiful girls.

[@historyandhearsay]

@@janiefox3458 thank you so much! That is such a sweet thing to say! It’s so heart breaking to see kids treated badly!😭

[@BettyOwen-c9g]

As a young girl, I was privileged to know a family who husband Joseph or Joe Clements was on the orphan train. He was a police officer, sheriff, and Whittier California. He would find children that would run away from the boys town or the bad boys school and he would take him home to his wife Grace, who would make them a meal and he would sit and talk with them and let them know that this was going to be the best mail they would get until they would learn to behave and that it would be best if they did, as far as I know, he was a wonderful man his son Joe Clemons was a professor at Whittier college his daughter Jerry Clemons worked for the federal government. They were a lovely family and I so wish I would’ve asked more questions.

[@historyandhearsay]

@@BettyOwen-c9g they sound like amazing people! Such a wonderful thing to spend their time doing!

[@gnostalgic]

My papa wasn’t from New York but he was abandoned at a train station and eventually adopted. Adoption has become a theme in our family.

[@historyandhearsay]

I love the happy ending!

[@minicoop0609]

There was a fictional book series I read about this as a kid in the 90’s. I think it was called the orphan train series. The characters in those books experience a lot of the topics brought up here. Strong kids being chosen first. Less desired kids being stuck on the train for a long time going to multiple stops hoping to find a family. Older kids not being chosen. Haven’t thought about this topic in ages! This video was really interesting and heartbreaking 😢

[@historyandhearsay]

One of my viewers recommended that series & I just recently read the first 2 books. They are so good! I’m excited to read the rest

[@TeganWelsch-Rainek]

I’m glad I was recommended this video. I’m been struggling to find good content and have listened to my favorite podcasts/KZbinrs videos all twice.

[@historyandhearsay]

@@TeganWelsch-Rainek yay! :) I’m so glad you enjoyed it!

[@C-Span222]

My Grandma Marie was on the orphan train at 4. From N.Y. to West Alton MO. She married and had 13 children, each producing 58 grandchildren. She was wonderful and made each of us feel special. It is said that she may have had an older sister who might have been adopted in Chicago.

[@historyandhearsay]

Awe 🥰

[@arlenebaker2220]

I learned about the orphan trains when I read the bio of James A Mitchener - the highly successful historical novelist. His name was unknown, so he never knew his birth date or his "real" name. 3 maiden ladies took him to have a young male in their home for heavy chores. He was very well treated.

[@historyandhearsay]

@@arlenebaker2220 oh wow! How sad to lose your entire identity! But I’m glad to hear he was treated well!

[@equarg]

Basically used for labor (common) but was well treated. In a way he was lucky in that aspect.❤

[@arlenebaker2220]

@@equarg Interesting fact: When Mithener became famous as a writer (several of his books became plays or movies), an anonymous person threatened to kill him because he dared use the name Mitchener! The threats went on for years. His autobiography is as interesting as any of his books!

[@dinkster1729]

@@arlenebaker2220 Was it the name of the 3 unmarried women who took him in or was it a name he made up?

[@arlenebaker2220]

@@dinkster1729 All three are mentioned in his autobiography. Their last name was Mitchener. Interesting fact... when he became famous for his books, someone threatened his life for years for "using" the name that didn't belong to him. However, James Mitchener had no idea what his "real" name was, or the date of his birth. I read the book many years ago, that's why I can't remember any more than what I posted. It was very interesting!

[@whimai412]

I never heard of the orphan trains but not surprised considering that children didn't really have any rights back then. And honestly it was normally a miracle if children did end up being 6-7 due to high infant and child mortality rates at the time. So it's horrible these children actually survived to this point. And then were thrown out on the street. Brutal. The Orphan Train Rider, was a cute story. But also quite sad.

[@historyandhearsay]

@@whimai412 yeah :( so very sad!

[@HaileyDelaine]

One of my great grandmothers was adopted off the orphan train, she was one of the lucky one as she was a beloved and wanted child, even inherited what little family land they had. There is a museum in Opelousas Louisiana.

[@historyandhearsay]

@@HaileyDelaine Ive been to that museum, I want to go back now & look for everyone’s relatives stories in there! 🤩

[@Sweetanabel17]

I wrote about this for my Final college paper, the story of the kids I find were so sad

[@historyandhearsay]

So many were! 😭 But there were some good stories also!

[@susanisham6791]

I am new to your channel/podcast. I really enjoyed my time listening to this part of history. I hadn’t heard about these children, the caring adults, or these trains. My mother and her younger brother spent time in an orphanage because their mother was hospitalized and their Dad couldn’t care for them and work too. He came back and retrieved them after many months maybe even a year. My mother was very lucky in the fact that her parents were able to come back for them. I just can’t imagine how these little children felt or the older children, old enough to realize what was happening. Thank you for sharing . ❤

[@historyandhearsay]

Thank you so much for your sweet comment! I am so glad to hear that it worked out for your family, it is truly heartbreaking to me what some of these children went through!

[@CaiHag]

I’m so thankful you added the story. I balled my eyes out and I was on the edge of my seat.

[@historyandhearsay]

@@CaiHag so glad you enjoyed it! 💕

[@alanaadams7440]

My grandma came to America thru Ellis Island in 1905 she came with her parents and four siblings. Her mother Johanna died in child birth here. Her father farmed out the kids but the oldest and went to Canada my grama never saw her fathet again. She kept in touch with her siblings except the new baby my grama was a slave for the farmer who took her in. Cooked and washed clothes for 24 farm hands never got a birthday party or present never got a Christmas present wore the hand me downs from the farmers kids

[@historyandhearsay]

So sad to be treated that way! 😭

[@BelleFlower15]

What a fantastic video! Thank you. The poem made me cry

[@historyandhearsay]

So glad you enjoyed it! Me too! 😭🥰

[@eileenmiller4685]

My great-great-grandmother was born in Kansas in 1900 and went through a similar experience when her mother passed away. She was four years old, the youngest of four children when her mother died. Her father was unable to cope on his own and sent all four children away. Two of her siblings (8 and 12) were placed in two separate homes in Oklahoma, and she never saw them again. She and her ten year old brother were put on a train from Oklahoma to Tennessee where they were taken in by a farming couple. She had diabetes and was often very ill as a child. The family treated her very well, ensuring she had the healthcare she needed, but her brother had an entirely different experience. He was used as a laborer and made to sleep in the barn until he ran away at the age of 16. My great-great-grandmother lived with this couple until she got married at age 18, but they never formally adopted her. She never was able to reconnect with her birth father or siblings after her brother ran away. She spoke very fondly of the couple that took her in and cared for her as a child, but she lamented that she'd lost touch with her birth family.

[@historyandhearsay]

@@eileenmiller4685 that must have been so hard for her 💕

[@nicolemacholz9778]

My grandfather was born in the early 1900s he had 5 brothers and 3 sisters. His mother became very ill and sent the oldest 4 boys (my grandfather was one of them) to an orphanage in Buffalo NY. The two youngest girls in the family were not born yet. She eventually did go back and get them but it took awhile. I couldn’t imagine what would happen if she went to get them and was told sorry we sent in a train out west. So some of the children who begged to not want to go on the train because their parents were might have been right. So sad.

[@historyandhearsay]

@@nicolemacholz9778 heart breaking!💔

[@zenpigs8024]

Very well put together ☺️

[@historyandhearsay]

@@zenpigs8024 thank you so much! :)

[@amandapittar9398]

I’d never heard of a thing like the Orphan Train. It’s a strange thing that authorities would treat small children and babies so appallingingly - often with casual cruelty and abuse - but persecute a poor mother who was abandoned, destitute and alone for smothering a sickly babe. Now where’s the fairness in that? That’s why I believe in every child a wanted child. Every woman owns her own body and is the only one to make the decisions about it. No church, no state, no male interference.

[@historyandhearsay]

I believe every baby deserves life, but I agree that the rules can be double sided for sure! Across the years & across counties, governments never seem to hold themselves to as high of a standard as they hold individuals!

[@dinkster1729]

My mother was a caseworker in child protection for 12 years. After she retired and I was a mother, she phoned me up to go to a demonstration at the local MP's office because some other people were demanding that the new Canadian abortion law be repealed. I told my mother I couldn't go because I had 2 young children to care for and I told her not to bother going either because there is no abortion law in Canada now. An abortion is a decision to be made here between a woman and her doctor. My mother once said to me, "There are worse things than an abortion." She saw how badly some kids are treated once they are born during her more than a decade working in child protection.

[@aaronbecker5617]

My Great Grandfather was on the Orphan Train and he just remembered living in a old basement and then got sent west

[@historyandhearsay]

@@aaronbecker5617 oh wow! I wonder if the basement was an orphanage or his families home? 🤔

[@michellelafleur4232]

I grew up in Greenfield, Indiana where the orphan train stopped on its westward journey. One of the children that was put with a family to work as a domestic was Little Orphan Annie. She lived with the Riley family - not as their daughter but as their maid and nanny and she was just a child herself!! James Witcomb Riley, the Hoosier poet , grew up with her living in their home. He later wrote poems about Annie entertaining him and siblings with her vivid stories after she finished all her housework. She later married and moved away and Riley only became interested in her whereabouts when people began questioning him where this Annie was- she was famous! He finally located her not too far from Greenfield. I have wondered if he ever shared his fortune with her or ever had any emotional concern for her. She slept on a thin mattress on the floor at the top of the back stairs which lead down to the kitchen .some of these children were not cared for as family members- very sad. Thanks for the documentary here

[@historyandhearsay]

Oh that’s is so interesting! And yes, so sad! Glad you enjoyed the episode! :)

[@mothgeb5829]

I saw a short random clip 2 days ago about the orphan train. Thought History & Hearsay should look into it. The next day you posted the video. Great job !

[@historyandhearsay]

Oh, perfect timing! I’ve been wanting to talk about it SO long but knew it would take a lot of time researching to do the story justice! I still left some things out, but had to condense it out, so I could get the video out 🙈 It’s hard for me to do with the stories like this! I could have researched about few weeks & had the video be twice as long! 😆 thank you so much for watching!

[@Denymymadness]

thank you for telling this story! I had no idea about this and i'm sure many americans are unaware as well. This seems like an important part of our country's history that we should all know .

[@historyandhearsay]

@@Denymymadness I think it is!

[@towanda1067]

All of this information is readily available if you are just curious. Stay curious and learn more. Schools can’t teach EVERYTHING. Up to lifelong learners to fill in the gaps.

[@historyandhearsay]

@@towanda1067 yes! So true! They hit the highlights & it’s up to us to fill in the gaps with our own studying & interests!

[@raeannaruby8306]

My great grandpa (my grandma's father) was adopted as a small child in the turn of the last century. All we know of his previous life was he had a twin sister he barely remembered.

[@historyandhearsay]

@@raeannaruby8306 awe 😭

[@BelivableBoo]

My great grandmas parents took in a child who was their neighbors. That child ended up being on the train and ended in lousiana with my family and what happened was when he was about 5 he was adopted by my greatgrandparents neighbors and lived with them a few years until a fire happened and burnt down their house. He was the only survivor and he was around 7 years old, so as a way to show he always has a home my great great-grandparents took him in. My great great grandfather who i saddly was never told his name said," i may raise you like my child, i may guve you a roof over your head and food, i may see you as my child but i will never take away the last thing you have from your parents. And thats your last name." So my great great grandfather never changed his last name, and ended up living his whole life inside my family till he died at 34 for some reason i wasnt told. But from what ive learned from my family he never had kids, but he had a wife. And he had old , yet real victorian furniture that was inside his house and when he passed away he gave it apl to my great grandparents. Not just that but one of my great grandmothers ounts used to say "no matter how difrent he was from me, no matter how difrent i am from him i see him as my family so why would i ever not?" Aparently years later saying what im about to say was from 5-7 years ago (i wasnt given the actual date) my great grandmother and my aunt sue went to a museum that would teach you about the orphan train and they handed over his old cloths from when he was on the train and the people said "thank you, we knew he was on the train but there was no information on him, for as in his cloths, and other belingins" And thats the story from what i know about him!

[@historyandhearsay]

@@BelivableBoo oh, so cool! I’ve been to the Louisiana museum, but I want to go back now!

[@kennapace3869]

I have seen a couple of other documentaries on the orphan trains but not as much about the details of the history. Your perspective and the information provided is very interesting. Thank you

[@historyandhearsay]

@@kennapace3869 thank you! So glad you enjoyed it! :)

[@Lizicles1]

I think have one of these children in my family tree. My 5th great grandmother was “found wandering around” in New York at 4 years old and goes in and out of orphanage lists for a few years. Then she pops up again in a census when she was 12 years old in South Dakota, adopted by a family we can’t find any other ties to. Are there records of what kids were put on trains? We aren’t certain her name is actually what her parents named her but it seems consistent across the records we do have… she was “found in 1878 and adopted between 1880 and 1886.

[@historyandhearsay]

One of the first links that I posted in the description has some resources on how to find Orphan Train riders but I’m not sure if there is a straight forward list, or if it still requires a bit of digging (I’m thinking that’s probably the case)

[@tvremote7082]

thank you for making this video !! my great great aunt was on the orphan train in the early 1900s and was droppped of (?) in utah and got adopted by a loving family who cherished her as if she were their own so it’s nice to hear

[@historyandhearsay]

💕 I love hearing the positive stories! So glad her experience was a good one!

[@tvremote7082]

@@historyandhearsay Yess, it’s heartbreaking to hear about the bad ones but positive ones are refreshing to know some were taken care of

[@papimono22]

This was a tear jerker story i wish this would have been shared in school kids might have more of a understanding how hard life once was and how we can develop change and improvement in child development.

[@historyandhearsay]

Some schools teach it, but it seems as though most don’t.

[@dinkster1729]

There is still a terrible amount of child poverty and poor families in North America. How many children are being raised in foster families because the family of origin breaks down.

[@Kovu1224]

I recently watched another KZbin video about past life memories, and this girl had memories of a past life connected with the Orphan Train.

[@historyandhearsay]

Ohhh that sounds interesting!

[@vanessarae4746]

I have a friend whoʻs granny was on the orphan train… i met her in her twilight years. It was fascinating to hear her personal story..

[@historyandhearsay]

I would have loved to meet a survivor and talk with them! I find it so fascinating as well!

[@sorij3560]

I continue to be amazed and what people can survive, especially children. Humans are incredibly strong survivors.

[@historyandhearsay]

@@sorij3560 yes! So resilient!

[@2000disneyland]

How could I go this long in my life, and just now hear about O trains? So tragic for those unfortunate children.

[@historyandhearsay]

It was!

[@tomalexander2710]

Wow, happy to have been recommended this, how interesting! Hello from across the pond

[@historyandhearsay]

@@tomalexander2710 Hello! :) 👋 So glad you enjoyed it!

[@Sunshine-se6yn]

I had never heard of this. Thank you for this video.

[@historyandhearsay]

@@Sunshine-se6yn you are welcome! I’m so glad you enjoyed it!

[@nickd4310]

There was a similar program in the UK where 100,000 "home children" were shipped to Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

[@historyandhearsay]

Oh wow! I’ve never heard of that one!

[@dinkster1729]

@@historyandhearsay Yes! A friend of my parents was such a child. He made contact with his family of origin later in life. They visited him here in Canada. I think he may hve been sent to Canada as an older child because he still had his English accent.

[@debbiecooper1677]

my great grandmother was one and send to Kentucky. she had a great life there.

[@historyandhearsay]

@@debbiecooper1677 I love hearing the positive stories 💕

[@janicewright3578]

I have heard of the Orphan Trains. The town I live in, Hopkinton, IA, had it stop here. In fact, you have footage of it at 18:47 in your video! PBS did a documentary on Orphan Trains several years ago and also mentions Hopkinton. I feel for the poor children and families that became separated. The Orphan Trains provided a decent life for many of the kids that ended up being relocated.

[@historyandhearsay]

@@janicewright3578 yes! I saw that documentary, that’s where the footage is from. I’m happy to know some were treated well, just wish it could have been good for all of them! 💕

[@kallykat5993]

I have an ancestor who came to Texas from New York on the orphan train. He did not like the family who adopted him and wouldn't go by their last name later in life. We also have a letter a nun in New York wrote him as a response to his inquiries about his birth parents. She didn't have any information to give him, unfortunately.

[@historyandhearsay]

@@kallykat5993 💔

[@DonatienAlphonse]

Thank you. I'd never heard of orphan trains. I learned something!

[@historyandhearsay]

@@DonatienAlphonse so glad! :)

[@anonfornow359]

So many pros and cons here. You did an excellent job giving us the information both good and bad. Thanks for all your hard work. I think all history should be taught this way. Makes it real and relatable.

[@historyandhearsay]

@@anonfornow359 thank you so much :)

[@mollysmith1226]

I agree this was good

[@clarencedavisiii1412]

Thanks just found your podcast and I subscribed ❤

[@historyandhearsay]

Thank you! I’m so glad you are enjoying it :)

[@clarencedavisiii1412]

@historyandhearsay I will be a loyal listener

[@bananabread6769]

There is actually a song based off of this. It's called "Orphan Train" by Project 4. It talks about a brother and sister who are sent on the train. Because they were street orphans. They were separated and the boy gets adopted.

[@historyandhearsay]

💕

[@tah6243]

No never heard of the Orphan Train. But this vindicates all the sad stories about abandoned children. Ive always had a strong pull towards orphans, having never suffered their plight

[@historyandhearsay]

@@tah6243 💕

[@tah6243]

I was a welfare officer amongst native tribes. I dealt with native adoptions, both into tribes & outside tribes. There was always a deep cry from children to be loved. I found worthy willing parents both native & non native. The presiding judges got to trust our insight & advice. I always made sure to add my cautionary note so that the judge knew that the adopting party had legal recourse for the protection of the child.

[@historyandhearsay]

@@tah6243 that’s so important! Thank you being a voice for children!

[@jackieharvey7896]

My best friends grandmother was one of children on the train. So both of us used here for show and tell. It was great learning from a source that went through it.

[@historyandhearsay]

@@jackieharvey7896 I bet that was so interesting to be able to speak with her! I got to hear some holocaust survivors speak in person & it was so incredible 💕

[@wels234]

I've not heard about it but also not surprised considering the time period

[@historyandhearsay]

@@wels234 sadly, that is true!