Dear Friends,

I recently returned from a 3-week research trip to New York and Canada - searching for information on my Orphan Train father and my Home Child grandfather. I want to share the following with you:

My father was placed in an orphanage in New York in 1912. My father tried to get his records in 1965, but was told that no records existed. My father died in 1979. I started searching in 1981. Writing to the orphanage, I again was told there were no records. Just over five years ago now, my sister & I went to orphanage and asked them again for records - we thought that maybe a face to face inquiry may be more effective. Again we were told that no records existed due to a flood in the basement many years before. We were, however, allowed to look at Admission/Discharge Ledgers. Lo and behold, guess what we found: The admission and discharge to the orphanage for my father and his sister (why didn't they look in these ledgers when my father asked for information??). We were grateful for this information and, though skimpy, the entries gave us research leads. We were disappointed, however, that there had been a "flood" and his full file had been lost.

Now fast forward to July, 2000: Again we visited the orphanage ---- this time just to say "hi" to the woman who had helped us before. We were there just a few minutes, and, after refreshing her memory as to who we were, she left the room and then returned with two files - my father's and his sister's. Seems the files were not destroyed by the "flood", but just mis-filed. She explained that they are now in the process of putting the files in order and many files not found previously have now been found. She also indicated that more attention (manpower) is being devoted to the old records.

Moral of the story: Don't give up - even if told there are no records, if you KNOW there should be, keep asking. Times change, personnel change, and a curt reply one year can change to a thorough investigation the next. In my father's case, it took 35 years to get his file. But now we have it.

Sheila Beatty