The New York Foundling Sisters of Charity of New York

Table of Content

• History
• Vincent J. Fontana Center for Child Protection
• Using DNA to Search for Orphan Train Ancestors: Step by Step
• Foundling Hospital Records New York City Orphan Train Records
• Connect To Your Foundling Roots
• Step 9: Look at Newspapers and Other Historical Records
• Supportive Individualized Residential Alternative

Just three years later, George loses his mother when she dies at age 32. George’s father finds a housekeeper, Annie McCaffrey, to help with the children. George’s father dies in 1888 when George is twenty.

Although originally planned only for mother’s care by the Sisters, St. Anne’s was opened in 1915 to outside physicians who wished to send private patients for confinement. In 1944, the Hospital service of St. John’s was discontinued in order to expand and improve services to well children in need of care away from their own homes and thus meet an urgent need in this community. The St. Agatha property in Nanuet was sold in 2005. That same year, the Elizabeth Seton Pediatric Center became an independent entity in the 595 Avenue of the Americas building, separate from the Foundling. The Foundling no longer managed a hospital, and dropped the word "hospital" from its name. These changes allowed the Foundling to expand its core services of foster care and adoption, and to develop new community-based programs.

History

Within a year, they had to move to a new location. In their first two years, they cared for over 2,500 infants. In October 1869, the Sisters of Charity purchased a four-story brownstone, and they planned to open within a few months. They had to adjust their plans when, the very first evening they occupied the new home, October 11, they heard a crying baby.

There were newspaper accounts of Abbie visiting them in Fall River, Massachusetts around Christmas time, and Abbie was visiting them while pregnant with my grandfather. In 2008, The Foundling opened the Mott Haven Academy Charter School. The first charter school of its kind in the nation, Haven Academy uses a trauma-sensitive curriculum designed to meet the unique educational needs of kids in the child welfare system. One-third of Haven Academy's seats are reserved for scholars in foster care, and another third are reserved for those who receive services to prevent them from entering foster care. Approximately 23 percent of the school's non-foster care population are homeless, returning to a shelter each night after school. The New York Foundling's foster care program is responsible for approximately 700 children at any given time and range from newborns up to age 21.

Vincent J. Fontana Center for Child Protection

In 2007 it embarked on a demonstration project to provide support and guidance to youth in the juvenile justice system and their families, to keep offenders in their homes and communities rather than detained in an institution. In 2008, the Foundling partnered with the Mott Haven Academy to create the first charter school in the nation specifically designed to serve children in foster care and the child welfare system. The Foundling merged with the St. Agatha Home for Children in 1977 and the latter became the St. Agatha Home of the New York Foundling Hospital.

Perhaps at some point in the distant past the name Vanstone became Van Sten for some member of the family. In DNA Detectives, I had read about another type of DNA test. Y-DNA is passed down along paternal lines, from paternal grandfather to father to son.

Using DNA to Search for Orphan Train Ancestors: Step by Step

The first definitive documentation I can find on this family is a James Vansten, born in Ireland in 1809, marrying Sarah Murphy, also born in Ireland . They were married at St. Nicholas Catholic church in Liverpool. James’ occupation is listed as a “cordwainer,” or shoemaker. For a while, I have known that my grandfather’s origins could be traced back to the Van Sten family of New York City two brothers possibly being my great-grandfather.

The other crisis was a sensationalized investigation of the city's private child-caring institutions and of the State Board of Charities by John A. Kingsbury, New York City's Commissioner of Charities, in 1916. Although the Foundling was not singled out for censure, the organization was required to submit to more city oversight and to change its foundational principle that a mother might surrender her child with no questions asked. The first was an incident in Arizona in 1904, in which a mob of non-Catholic Anglo families forcibly removed children from Catholic Mexican families with whom they had been placed by the Foundling. The Supreme Court of Arizona ruled against the Foundling, in New York Foundling Hospital v Gatti in 1905, and the U.S. After the Civil War one of the most gripping of New York’s social problems was the abandonment of infants in the streets of the City. Poverty, immigration, inadequate housing, and a financial depression were the factors which made abandonment in ever present evil.

By the 1910s, 1,000 children a year were placed with new families. Our goal is to help people participate as members of their community by proactively approaching treatment planning, and providing extra support and guidance. Individuals are encouraged to make their housing, living, and support preferences known, and staff accommodate these preferences when possible. We assist people in our residential programs to engage in their communities, gain more autonomy, and participate in gainful activities – from day programs to volunteer work and paying jobs. The Foundling Asylum of the Sisters of Charity in the City of New York opened at 17 East 12th Street on October 11, 1869, as a Catholic haven for abandoned babies.

There are some newspaper accounts of trains coming to communities. The National Orphan Train Complex will do a search for a reasonable fee, but records are more available from the Children’s Aid Society and other agencies other than the NY Foundling. But…it is worth contacting the National Orphan Train Complex just in case. He felt a better life in a home with high moral standards and physical labor would provide more opportunities and practical education for the children. To that end, he created the Orphan Train Movement which lasted from the 1850s through the 1920s.

Connect To Your Foundling Roots

I then placed each of those shared matches into the maternal or paternal categories, assuming that they fell into a particular line based on who they shared DNA with. I began the genetic journey by deciding what DNA test to take. I went with Ancestry DNA as it has the largest database of customers, and therefore, had the most potential DNA matches .

That attic, with no air conditioning, was rather unpleasant in the summer. After that, Grandpa appears to have had a few different jobs, but his primary career after that was as an auto mechanic, working for local tire and auto repair companies. Grandpa came to central Missouri in 1901 on an Orphan Train, and he was taken in by Fred and Catherine Schnieders Markway. I have seen only one photograph of him with the Markway family and it is clear that he is not their natural-born son, as he is several inches shorter than everyone else. After the war, Grandpa married into a prominent family in Jefferson City and he started his own family. He also started a business, as an automobile dealer.

Step 9: Look at Newspapers and Other Historical Records

Ancestry also has a huge number of historical records to aid in research. I was not old enough to appreciate that he was haunted by not knowing where he was born or even who his parents were. Throughout my life I heard stories about Grandpa going back to New York looking for his mother.

They were never adopted, meaning I was able to request records. However, no proper name was given of their Mother , she was it appears , totally alone & desperate to save her Babies, this leaving them at Echo Hill ,Bronx N.Y. Alot of unfortunate wording is used, “Abandoned” is not the slur it appears, many had no alternative and to actually save their children, this was the only way.

She carried him to the Foundling Asylum, to a place that could care for him. She identified herself by name as she handed him over. This whole process had been an incredibly emotional journey, and along the way my family reconnected. My immediate and extended families had their share of struggles over the years, but in my searching, I talked with cousins I hadn’t seen in years. My siblings and I shared memories and put pieces together that helped us understand each other better. It seemed Grandpa was working to bring us together.

Everybody seemed to remember the story a little differently. In all my searching I had already discovered he had been born at Misericordia Hospital, a facility that served indigent women, many of them giving birth out of wedlock. I had assumed he had been born there to a single mother, and that the hospital had transferred him to the Foundling Asylum. Then, a few weeks ago, one of my cousins was going through some things in his parents’ house. His mother had died a couple years ago, and his father was moving to a new place. My cousin, Gary, found a surprise–a box of Grandpa’s possessions–a time capsule of Grandpa’s life.