National Orphan Train Complex

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Orphan train research helps find foster children between 1853 and 1930 who rode trains from New York City, Boston, or Chicago to new homes in other states or Canada. The genealogy of many of these 200,000 orphaned, abandoned, or homeless children can often be traced back to the Children's Aid Society, or the New York Foundling Hospital, among others.

Contact Information
E-mail: [mailto:orphantraindepot@gmail.com orphantraindepot@gmail.com]

Address:


 * National Orphan Train Complex
 * 300 Washington St.
 * PO. Box 322
 * Concordia, KS 66901

Telephone: 785-243-4471

Hours and holidays:


 * Tuesday thru Friday: 10:00am-Noon, and 1:00pm-4:00pm
 * Saturday: 10:00am-4:00pm
 * Closed:  Sunday, Monday, and all national holidays

Directions: Google Map

Internet sites and databases:


 * National Orphan Train Complex Internet site: history, rider stories, events, news, rider registry, research, FAQs, educational material, and national speakers bureau.
 * Orphan train research facilities addresses and links in New York, New England, and Nebraska.
 * State orphan train groups in AR, CO, IL, IN, IA, LA, MN, MO, NY, TX, and, WI.

Collection Description
The National Orphan Train Museum and Research Center (a.k.a. Complex) collect, preserve, interpret, and disseminate knowledge about the orphan trains, the children and the agents who rode them. This includes the history of the orphan train movement, and the stories of the children, photos, artifacts, and an archival collection. Also, they maintain a rider registry, a speakers' bureau, and the organization's online news.

NOTC has 66 volumes of orphan train rider records of the American Female Guarding Society (AFGS), photos, about 20,000 rider records, 9,700 names in computer databases, and Internet access to Ancestry.com.

Tips

 * Please contact Amanda Wahlmeier, curator, before visiting so she can see if NOTC archives have records of your person.
 * NOTC charges $20 for their research resources.
 * General admission: $5.00 Adults; $3.00 Children under 12;  $4.00 Group rate for 10 or more people.

Alternate Repositories
If you cannot visit or find a source at the , a similar source may be available at one of the following.

Overlapping Collections


 * National Archives Central Plains Region (Kansas City), censuses, military, pensions, naturalizations, photos, for IA, KS, MN, MO, NE, ND, SD; Internet access to Ancestry, Heritage Quest, and Footnote.
 * National Archives I, Washington, DC has homestead applications for Kansas and all other states.
 * Family History Library, Salt Lake City, 450 computers, 3,400 databases, 3.1 million microforms, 4,500 periodicals, 310,000 books of worldwide family and local histories, censuses, civil, church, immigration, ethnic, military, and Mormon records.
 * Children's Aid Society, NYC, archives searches ($) for adoptions, and orphan train riders.
 * New York Foundling Hospital, can do records research for close relatives only.

Neighboring Collections


 * Kansas Historical Society, Topeka, has indexes, photos, letters, diaries, newspapers, maps, censuses, vital records, family histories, land records, railroads, and county place information.
 * Kansas Dept. of Health and Environment, Topeka, births/deaths since 1911; marriages since 1913.
 * Kansas Genealogical Society, Dodge City, 15,000 books, vital records, cemeteries, censuses, and computer databases focused mostly on Kansas.
 * Topeka Genealogical Society, 10,000 books, 700 periodicals, strongest for NE Kansas and Shawnee County.
 * American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, Lincoln, NE, has Russian geography info, church records, civil records, maps, family histories, photos, and surname charts, newspapers, U.S. arrival lists.
 * Wichita State University Library, Wichita, biography, history, law, and JSTOR.
 * University of Kansas Libraries, Lawrence, government records, maps, newspapers, periodicals, Kansas and Douglas County history especially 1854-1861, and overland trails.
 * Iola Public Library, 4000 genealogy books, 12,500 microfilms, help from genealogist volunteers, and access to HeritageQuest Online.
 * Cloud County Genealogical Society newspapers, church records, censuses, plat maps, vital records, family histories, local histories at the Frank Carlson Library.
 * Cloud County Historical Society Museum has a small research collection.
 * Cloud County Clerk has births, marriages, and deaths 1885-1910.
 * Cloud County Register of Deeds, land records.
 * District Court Clerk has divorce records.
 * Frank Carlson Library, Concordia, houses the Cloud County Genealogical Society collection.
 * Cloud County Probate Judge has probate and court records.

For Further Reading

 * Janet Coble, Children of orphan trains : from New York to Illinois and beyond ([Springfield, Ill.] : Illinois State Genealogical Society, 1994). ; . Mostly a name list with placing-out details.
 * Annette R. Fry, Orphan Train (New York, N.Y.: New Discovery Books, 1994). ; . Brief history of the movement.
 * Marilyn Irvin Holt, The orphan trains : placing out in America (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1992). ; . Scholarly history of the movement.
 * Mary Ellen Johnson, comp., Orphan train riders: their own stories, 6 vols. (Baltimore, Md.: Orphan Train Heritage Society of America, 1992-2007). ; . Some of the stories are second-hand.
 * Clark Kidder, Orphan trains and their precious cargo : the life's work of Rev. H. D. Clarke (Bowie, Md.: Heritage Books, 2001). ; . Town-by-town distribution lists.
 * Donna M. Nelson, La Porte's orphan train children : the children's homes, orphanages and training school of Julia E. Work (La Porte, Indiana : D. M. Nelson, 2008). ; . History and list of local orphanage residents.
 * Orphan Train Heritage Society of America, Crossroads (newsletter). ; . Articles about about orphan train history, rider stories, and organization news.
 * Tom Riley, Orphan Train Riders : a brief history of the orphan train era (1854-1929): with entrance records from the American Female Guardian Society's Home for the Friendless in New York, 2 vols. (Westminster, Md.: Heritage Books, 2005-2006). ; . Mostly AFGS name lists with references to original documents.
 * Andrea Warren, We rode the orphan trains (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2001). . Rider stories for Elementary and Junior High audiences.
 * Patricia J Young, and Frances E Marks, Tears on paper : the history and life stories of the orphan train riders ([Bella Vista, Ark.] : P.J. Young ; [Idaho] : F.E. Marks, 1990). ; . Rider stories.

Related Websites

 * United States Adoption Research Research Wiki article.
 * Orphan Trains Cyndi's List.