Orphan Record Repositories

Did your ancestor take an “orphan train” out of the big city to a foster home in the country? Get on board to trace the roots of foster children from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

• Brooklyn Nursery and Infants Hospital
c/o Salvation Army Social Services for Children
132 W. 14th St.
New York, NY 10011
(212) 352-5550

• Children’s Aid Society
Office of Closed Records
150 E. 45th St.
New York, NY 10017
www.childrensaidsociety.org

• The Children’s Village
(formerly the New York Juvenile Asylum)
Office of Alumni Affairs
Dobbs Ferry, NY 10522
(914) 693-0600, Ext. 1410
www.childrensvillage.org
Founded in 1851.

• Five Points House of Industry
c/o Greer-Woodycrest and Hope Farm
Crystal Run Village
RD 2, Box 98
Middletown, NY 10940

• Brooklyn Home for Children
c/o Forestdale Inc.
67-35 112th St.
Forest Hills, NY 11375
Founded in 1884 as the Home for Destitute Children.

• New England Home for Little Wanderers
c/o The Home for Little Wanderers
271 Huntington Ave.
Boston, MA 02115
(888) HOME-321
www.thehome.org
Founded in 1865; merged with Boston Children’s Services in 1999.

• New York Child’s Foster Home Services
c/o Sheltering Arms
122 E. 29th St.
New York, NY 10016
For Sheltering Arms and Speedwell records.

• New York Infant Asylum, 1865-1910, New York Nursery and Child’s Hospital, 1910-1947
c/o New York Weill Cornell
Medical Center Archives
525 E. 68th St, 25th Floor
New York, NY 10021
(212) 746-6072

• National Orphan Train Complex
300 Washington St.
Box 322
Concordia, KS 66901
(785) 243-4471
www.orphantraindepot.com

• New York Foundling Hospital
Record Information Department
590 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10011
(212) 633-9300, Ext. 6830
www.nyfoundling.org/who-we-are/history/48-records-information
Founded as the New York Foundling Asylum in 1869.

• Orphan Asylum Society of Brooklyn
c/o Brookwood Child Care (1960-present)
25 Washington St.
Brooklyn, NY 11201
(718) 596-5555
Records back to 1855.
Original records were sent to: University of Minnesota Social Welfare History Archives
320 Elmer L. Andersen Library
222 21st Ave. S.
Minneapolis, MN 55455
(612) 625-9825
special.lib.umn.edu/swha
Founded in 1832.

• Orphan Asylum Society of New York City
c/o Graham Windham Services
to Families and Children
1 S. Broadway
Hastings-on-Hudson, NY 10706
(914) 478-1100
www.graham-windham.org

Clark Kidder is a genealogist, freelance writer and author of Orphan Trains and Their Precious Cargo: The Life’s Work of Rev. H.D. Clarke (Heritage Books).