About this episode
Imagine being a child on the freezing streets of 19th century New York. Your mother is dead and your father, too poor to feed you and your baby sister, sends you out to survive on your own. Cold, hungry, and terrified, you stumble into an alley where other abandoned children huddle for warmth. They teach you their ways, but survival is brief. You’re caught, thrown in jail, and before you know it, you're told you're going on a train ride to a "better life"—far from the only family you have left.
This is the story of the Orphan Train—a journey of hope, despair, and the complex legacy of America’s first child welfare experiment.
The 2 episodes I mentioned at the end of the episode:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/2172641/15047209
https://www.buzzsprout.com/2172641/15003607
Timestamps:
0:00 - Intro + Personal love for this story
1:22 - Mass Immigration
2:54 - Why so many Orphans?
5:35 - Orphanage Problems
7:00 - News Boys + Public Punishments
9:43 - Charles Loring Brace
11:53 - Early Life - Charles Loring Brace
13:20 - Brace’s Ideas:
16:20 - Placing Out + The Orphan Trains
17:40 - How They did it
19:10 - New York Foundling Hospital
21:37 - How CAS found prospective parents
22:54 - How the Foundling Hospital was different
24:35 - CAS Process for placing out
26:08 - Mary Ellen Wilson
28:06 - Lee’s Story
32:47 - Various Experiences of the Riders
40:00 - Lasting Effects + Changed Laws
42:48 - Train Rider Reunions
43:50 - Did your Ancestors Riding the Orphan Train?
SOURCES:
https://www.notesfromthefrontier.com/post/the-heartbreaking-tale-of-orphan-trains
HOW to find Orphan Train Riders: https://orphantraindepot.org/research-and-registration/genealogical-research-resources/#:~:text=Ellis Island Passenger Database – Many,search, but it is free
https://www.statueofliberty.org/discover/passenger-ship-search/
Lee Nailling Book I mentioned: Orphan Train Rider by Andrea Warren
https://orphantraindepot.org/history/orphan-train-rider-stories/lee-nailling/
https://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/programs/child-welfarechild-labor/orphan-trains/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyXiz_4HQIo
Don’t miss watching this presentation from the grandson of a train rider - it is BEAUTIFUL! https://www.pbs.org/video/university-place-brave-journey-orphan-train-rider/
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