The Orphan Train Movement: Tales of Three Riders

Program Type:

Lecture

Age Group:

Adults

Event Details

Join us as Jill Morelli, author and researcher shares historical records discovered on orphans from the orphan train movement. This presentation launched the author into a two-plus year investigation of 46 orphans who arrived in Webster City, Iowa in 1890, and resulted in her book Journeys of the Forgotten: The Orphans of Hamilton County, Iowa.

The removal of orphans or “partial orphans” by the Children’s Aid Society of New York City began in 1854 and continued until 1929. Over 250,000 children are thought to have been removed from the City by multiple agencies taking approximately 33,000 children to upstate New York, and a similar number to the Midwest. The program had its genesis with the Industrial Revolution, which demanded child labor, had no laws to prevent it, and no social safety net for families. Children were abandoned by parents who could not afford to feed them or were too sick to care for them. Unwed mothers formed another group.

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What you will learn

  • A brief history of orphan trains and NYC during this timeline
  • Details tracing the lives of 3 orphan train riders in different decades 
  • How to access and investigate records of this challenging genealogical group 

Darien Library is delighted to co-sponsor this program event with Middlesex Genealogical Society. 

Presenter

Jill Morelli is a writer, lecturer and researcher specializing in Midwest, and Scandinavian research and methodologies. She is a Certified Genealogist (CG) and a Certified Genealogical Lecturer (CGL). She lectures nationally and has been published in the National Genealogical Society Quarterly (NGSQ), Swedish American Genealogist, and many others. In 2017, she founded the Certification Discussion Group, sharing her journey to receive the CG credential, is a past president of the Seattle Genealogical Society, program director for the Puget Sound chapter of the Association of Professional Genealogists (APG), and is a co-founder of Applied Genealogy Institute, where the focus is on practicum-based learning.

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