Who we are
Riders on the Orphan Train is an independent online magazine of American history told through ordinary families. We publish reported stories, research guides and memoir, edited by one editor and written by a small group of contributors and by readers who have something true to tell.
01 Orphan Trains
The children, agents and towns of the placing-out years, 1854 to 1929, and what the records still say about them.
02 Family History
Census pages, court dockets, church books and city directories: how to find your people in the record and keep the search honest.
03 Stories & Memoir
True stories families tell, set down by our writers and by readers who want them kept.
04 Towns & Travel
Depots, main streets, county museums and the small towns worth a detour.
05 Museums & Libraries
The reading rooms, archives and historical societies that keep local history, and how to use them well.
06 Adoption Then & Now
How placing children has changed since the trains stopped, and what has stayed the same.
07 Music & Storytelling
Songs, ballads and the old craft of telling a true story out loud, from front porches to library stages.
08 Heirlooms & Keepsakes
The objects that carry a family history, and how to label, store and pass them on.
Ruth Calloway
Edits the magazine from eastern Kansas and writes on the orphan trains and the archives that hold their records.
Owen Sadler
A retired Ohio schoolteacher who writes the research guides: census pages, city directories and family trees.
Teresa Lindqvist
Covers small towns, depots and heritage travel across the Plains, plus heirlooms and old photographs.
Marcus Bell
Writes memoir, adoption history and the craft of telling true stories out loud.
Sources. We work from records wherever we can: census pages, agency reports, court files, newspapers, church registers and the letters families keep. When a story rests on memory rather than a document, we say so.
Corrections. If we get something wrong, we fix it and note the change at the end of the story. Our corrections page explains how.
Reader stories. Some of our best pieces begin with a letter from a reader. If your family has a story that belongs here, we would like to hear it.
Have a family story we should hear? Use the share a story page or write to the editor at hello@ridersontheorphantrain.org.