Beginning in 1854, charitable institutions in New York City began sending orphans on trains to the west to find new families, feeling that the children would fare better out west than on the streets of New York. Orphan trains arrived in Kansas between 1867 and 1930, and some 5000-6000 children were placed in Kansas homes. [self-description] The site includes first-hand accounts, a timeline, newspaper descriptions and partial name lists of children on the orphan trains.