Middlesex Genealogical Society

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MGS Member Pages.
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Darien, CT

Saturday, November 2, 2024, 2:00 pm. Zoom. "the Orphan Train Movement: Tales of Three Riders." Presnted Jill Morelli. On Darien Library Zoom

Jill Morelli
The removal of orphans or “partial orphans” by the Children’s Aid Society of New York City began in 1854 and continued until 1929. Over 250,000 children are thought to have been removed from the City with upstate New York by multiple agencies taking approximately 33,000 children and the Midwest taking a similar number. The program had its genesis the Industrial Revolution which demanded child labor, had no laws to prevent it and no social safety net for families. Children were abandoned by parents who could not afford to feed them or were too sick to care. Unwed mothers formed another group. We will trace the lives of three orphan train riders in different decades, explore the characteristics of the orphans, their foster parents and their NYC birth parents. We will investigate the records that are most likely to yield information and their challenges. This presentation launched the author into a two-plus year investigation of 46 orphans who arrived in Webster City, Iowa in 1890, and resulted in her book Journeys of the Forgotten: The Orphans of Hamilton County, Iowa.

Jill Morelli, CG, CGL, is a writer, lecturer and researcher specializing in Midwest, and Scandinavian research and methodologies. She lectures nationally and has been published in the NGSQ, Swedish American Genealogist, and many others. In 2017, she founded the Certification Discussion Group, sharing her journey to receive the credential, is a past president of the Seattle GS, program director for the Puget Sound chapter of APG, and is a co-founder of Applied Genealogy Institute, where the focus is on practicum-based learning.

Middlesex Genealogical Society

The Middlesex Genealogical Society is located in the town of Darien, which is in Fairfield County, Connecticut, not far from New York City. Membership is open to all interested in family research, regardless of where they live. MGS draws members from various towns in Fairfield County, Connecticut, including Darien, New Canaan, Stamford, Greenwich, Norwalk, Wilton, Ridgefield, Westport, Weston, Redding, Fairfield.

The Middlesex Genealogical Society was established in 1982 for the purpose of encouraging those interested in researching their family history and to provide guidance to that end. The Society does not limit its focus to Darien or Fairfield County. It provides assistance for all researchers, wherever their ancestry leads.

A Newsletter is published quarterly.

MGS holds program Presentation Meetings on five Saturdays during the year, presenting speakers on various topics of interest to all genealogists. These presentations are sponsored jointly by the Middlesex Genealogical Society and the Darien Library. These presentations are normally made at meetings in the Community Room of the Darien Library, but are temporarily being done by Zoom through the Library.

If you are new to genealogy, see our Getting Started page.

Volunteers are available at the Darien Library to help you with research problems, or just to get you started.

Member Pages display the genealogical interests of members and help them connect with distant relatives.

The MGS project at Family Tree DNA helps you understand your Y-DNA results and what to do next.

MGS is registered with the State of Connecticut, thereby giving members access to vital records at town and city record offices in Connecticut.

About Our Name

The MGS name is derived from Middlesex Parish, the original name by which Darien, Connecticut, was known before becoming incorporated in 1820. The MGS founders were from Darien and chose "Middlesex" to honor the town. The name "Middlesex" is shown below on part of a 1789 map of Darien by Christopher Colles.

The main road is part of the 1,300-mile road from Boston to Charleston, South Carolina, ordered by King Charles II (now Old Kings Highway North)

N in the upper left corner is north

+ is the 1744 Darien Congregational Church

Z is Brookside Road

47 is miles from Federal Hall

Scofield is the 1736 Bates-Scofield house (now the Museum of Darien)

The squiggly arrow is the Goodwives River

Y to Oxridge is Sedgwick Avenue