Search Results for: blog the story of the orphan trains

Book Review: We Rode the Orphan Trains

I’ve written a blog before on the story of the orphan trains, a true story which has captured the imagination of several writers who have written either memoirs or historical fiction. We Rode the Orphan Trains, by Andrea Warren, is different because it interviews adoptees at the other end of their life stories, those senior citizens who are still living today (the book was published in 2001) and who rode the orphan trains between 1854 and 1929. We rarely hear from adoptees looking back on their entire lives. The book’s format consists of introductory and concluding chapters, and a second … Continue reading →

Book Review: Orphan Train Children: David’s Search

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Another in a series by Joan Lowery Nixon depicting fictional children who rode the orphan trains in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, David’s Search tells the story of an eleven-year-old who lives on the streets of New York. His older chum who looks after him tells him to go to the Children’s Aid Society, where he will be sent to a farm, fed three meals a day, and maybe even have real parents. David can just barely remember the parents who died when he was very young, and he dreams of having a mother again. In 1965 Missouri, … Continue reading →

Book Review: The Orphan Train Children: Will’s Choice

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The Orphan Train Children series, a spin-off of the Orphan Train Adventures Series, tells the story of children who were sent West on “orphan trains” to be fostered by townspeople. The children in this series are fictional; the orphan trains themselves are not. In Will’s Choice, twelve-year-old Will, whose mother died when he was four, travels with his father who works in a circus. When Will shows no signs of being talented enough to earn a living with the circus (okay, he’s rather clumsy), his father tells him that he has arranged for him to go “on a grand adventure”—to … Continue reading →

The Story of the Orphan Trains

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My last blog introduced my review of the Orphan Train Children series of children’s books. Twenty pages of historical notes in the back of each book tell the story of the real “orphan trains”, which took more than 150,000 children in the care of the New York Children’s Aid Society to rural communities between 1856 and 1929. Another hundred thousand were sent to the West by the New York Foundling Home. The notes explain the conditions in the Lower East Side of New York, the diseases which took many lives, and the fact that many children were from immigrant families … Continue reading →

Book Review: The Orphan Train Children Series, Part One

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There are two new book series by prolific children’s author Joan Lowery Nixon. Two of the seven books in the Orphan Train Adventures series have won major awards. A spin-off series, Orphan Train Children, is a series of small books telling the individual stories of fictional children on the train. My first reaction upon seeing this series was, “oh, no”. A children’s book about abandoned children being put on a train, stood on platforms for townspeople to choose from, then being used for farm labor? Sure non-adopted kids might find this bit of history new and unusual, but won’t it … Continue reading →

Man Uses Google Earth to Find Long Lost Family

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Genealogy research is connecting, more and more, with modern technology. You probably use an online website to do your research from, instead of traveling to a courthouse archive to do it. That’s just one example. A man in India used Google Earth to find his long, lost, family. Have you ever used Google to help with your genealogy research? Some genealogists have. Type the name of your ancestor into the Google search engine. Perhaps some helpful information will come up. If nothing good comes up, you can try different combinations of keywords. Try your ancestor’s first name and surname. Next, … Continue reading →

Did a Pandemic Affect Your Family?

When the weather gets cold, people begin to prepare themselves for flu season. They get flu shots and stock the medicine cabinet with the items that they may need if the illness visits their home. Every year, or every couple of years, there is talk of specific strains of the flu like Swine Flu or Bird Flu that are worse than the usual, garden variety influenza that can leave you miserable for a few days. These strains are more dangerous and can even be deadly. This is not a new thing, though. Throughout time disease pandemics have caused quite astonishing … Continue reading →

Upcoming Genealogy Events – Week of December 4, 2011

Looking for a genealogy event, conference, or class? There could be one happening soon, located near where you live. Check out this quick list of upcoming genealogy events that will be taking place this week. You could also browse through your local newspaper, to find out about more genealogy events. On December 6, 2011, the George Memorial Library, which is located in Richmond, Texas, will hold a “Genealogy 101” program. It will start at 10:00 in the morning. This program will give you a basic introduction to the genealogy resources that you can access from the library. It will also … Continue reading →

Book Review: Before Green Gables

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One of literature’s most famous foster children/adoptees is Anne Shirley, of Green Gables, Avonlea, Prince Edward Island… Many special editions of Lucy Maud Montgomery’s original series are being released this year in honor of the 100th anniversary of the first novel’s publication. This year brings something new: a “prequel” of vastly higher quality than the average prequel or sequel. The first original book begins with the adolescent Anne Shirley arriving at the farm of Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert. This brother and sister, lifelong bachelor and spinster, have requested a boy from an orphanage to help on the farm. Yet, observing … Continue reading →

Adoption Books with Great Art: You Are Special, You Were Chosen

You Are Special; You Were Chosen is a sweet little book which grew out of the bedtime story that the author’s father read to her each night. Its soft, detailed colored pencil/pastel illustrations definitely qualify it for my Adoption Books with Great Art series. The lovely pictures show diverse children and families, including siblings of different races, which I really appreciate, as that is something I have a hard time finding. Books featuring a multiracial classroom are becoming common, as are books featuring families of color—but multiracial families are still difficult to find. I almost bought a book the other … Continue reading →