Is there anyone on this lists who would know if the Catholic Home Bureau in NYC used the orphan trains to send children out for adoption. Looking at the year 1912 and searching for information regarding my grandfather. He was picked up from the orphange in Sparkill NY by a caseworker named Miss Sheridan and taken along with his sister by train to Locust Gap, PA. Thank you Belinda

I don't think the Catholic Home Bureau was involved in the orphan train phenomenon, but the answer would surely be in its annual reports---a collection is at the New York Public Library in Manhattan :

Catholic Home Bureau, New York. [Annual Report]. New York, 1___-__. __ vols. Catalogued in 1936---and title supplied---by the New York Public Library. The Bureau was established in 1899 and quite active in adoption work in the Archdiocese of New York. (Catholic Home Bureau for Dependent Children, New York)

I know the Bureau did adoptions for the Angel Guardian Home, which was in Brooklyn. There is a capsule case history of an adoptee born 1912 in Brooklyn who was adopted at the Court of Common Pleas of Luzerne County, PA. It appears---without names or exact date of birth---on page 235 of “Adoption Agencies, Orphanages and Maternity Homes : An Historical Directory,” published in 1982. Locust Gap is not in Luzerne County.

Reg Niles
RegNMINiles@cs.com

My understanding is that the Catholics DID have their own version of the Orphan Trains. The big difference was that placement was negotiated with the priest at the placement site before the children and caseworker ever left, i.e. no parades of kids for children to choose from. I read at least one remembrance that said that the placements were not restricted to children who were Catholic initially... something to the effect of "you could be Lutheran or Methodist or Baptist when you came in, but by the time you left, you were a Catholic." To me, this has meant that "paperwork" about baptism may have accompanied children. Bad news because I was hoping to find a baptism at the "receiving end" to confirm what happened.

Free access to the book is on the Internet as indicated at:
http://boards.ancestry.com/surnames.gaudry/2.3.13.1/mb.ashx

Reg Niles
RegNMINiles#cs.com
(change pound sign to at sign)

Hello there,
I am not from NY nor am I a Catholic, but I do know that my mother-in-law was adopted in KS and according to my husband and his family she road the orphin train from Albany, NY to KS. Her name was Edna Marie Agnew Dethample. The Dethample family adopted her. It is on the 1920 US Federal Census. I hope I am giving you the correct year of the Census. She was born in NY and if she was not a Catholic at the time, she became one. If you know anything about these records please reply.
Thank you,
Nancy

Is Agnew her birth surname?

I looked on the couple of lists that I have for the Kansas Orphan Trains and didn't see her on them but there were a lot of children who were adopted out. Have you tried calling the Children's Aid Society? They are very nice and quite willing to share what information they have.

I'll keep an eye out for you...I'm also searching for info on three children named Haerter who were adopted in Yates Center, Kansas - two to the Smedleys and one to the Matthews. I have all the census info on them and know who their birth parents are. Now I'm searching for people who have pictures or knew the children and/or their adoptive families.

I know who has this info. She is elderly and has worked for chb for over 60 years or so. Her name is Sr. Una, she lives in sparkhill. Send her a letter to: SR. UNA C/O Catholic Home Bureau 1011 first St. NYC, NY. ALSO a lady named Miss. Shaw might know this info also. They are both retired. They will forward this mail...........good luck I hope you get a reply.

Sparkhill is Blowvelt school for nurses of Dominican's .It is still there and still teaches nuns at the college has orphans and my ant was Sister Richarter O.P. meaning order of the poor my father was adopted also but there are scant records on my family my dear auntn is buried there