By the 1870s, the orphan trains of the Children's Aid Society were rolling into towns in more than 30 states. An average of more than 3,000 children a year were rocked by the iron cradle on journeys away from orphanages. The story of the orphan train movement is not simply about orphanages and policies, but rather the story of the thousands of children who made those journeys to places unknown and forever changed the landscape of rural America. Most of their stories had been forgotten in the attic of American history. However, children, grandchildren and other relatives of some of these orphan train riders had begun digging up their stories. 

Wahlmeier: “We estimate there's over 2 million direct descendants nationwide of an orphan train rider. It's really a story of survival and how these children kind of beat the odds of what they were dealt with being born in New York City during this time period.”