Now @ MPL...

Have you ever been curious about the story that your house has to tell? Whether you are a new house owner, or you've been living in your house for 30 years, the Central Library wants to help you discover your house's history, and the House History program is the perfect place to start.

The program is being held at the Central Library on Saturday, November 3, 2007 from 9:30-11:30 a.m. Sign in starts at 9:15 a.m. in the First Floor Meeting Room. From there, you will tour the resources that the Central Library has to offer. You will learn how to use the Sanborn Fire Insurance Atlases, how to wrap your head around the many intricacies of the tax rolls, how to convert an address, and learn about the many other resources your library has to offer.

The House History program is best for Milwaukee residents, as the resources focus mainly on Milwaukee.

To sign up, contact the Humanities Department at (414) 286-3061.

Fill in some of those gaps on your family tree at the open lab for using Ancestry Library Edition, a powerful tool for genealogists.

(Waldburg family tree)

The open labs take place on the following Saturdays: October 27, November 17, and December 15, from 1:00 p.m. until 3:00 p.m. This is a free service and it requires no advance registration. Simply go to the Central Library's computer lab, on the 2nd floor, and prepare to delve deeply into your family's history. A staff member will be on hand to answer questions about using this powerful database which gives you access to billions of names in almost as many different types of records.

Milwaukee Public Library also offers access to other Genealogy tools online. Additional questions may be answered by calling the dedicated staff at the Humanities desk at (414) 286-3061.

How long did the Orphan train run?

The Orphan Train Movement lasted from 1854 through 1929. In that time, approximately 200,000 orphaned, abandoned, or homeless children were put on the so-called "Orphan Train" and were relocated to the American West. The Children's Aid Society thought that in this way, these children might gain new families while helping out the pioneers who were settling the frontiers.

The train stopped in 47 states and in Canada. At each stop, townspeople who were interested would gather to inspect the children, and take home those they thought to be likely candidates. After the children had successfully completed a brief trial period, they would become indentured to their host families.

While this program is widely thought of as the beginning of documented foster care, it was not without controversy. Interestingly enough, the controversy came from both sides of the abolitionist movement. Many abolitionists believed that the children were ending up being slaves to their host families, while those who advocated slavery saw it as an outgrowth of the abolitionist movement. After all, who would need slaves when these children provided labor that made slaves unnecessary?

Because there were a large number of children who went west on the Orphan Trains, some genealogists have had problems tracing the ancestry of their relatives who may have hailed from the Orphan Train Movement. There are some resources available for those who are attempting to follow the ancestry of those children. Since so many of them came originally from New York City, many of these resources are from the city.