In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, charitable organizations in New York City attempted to help orphaned or abandoned children by placing them in new homes in other parts of the country. Special trains would bring these children to towns across rural America, where they would place with new families. Over the years, the New York Foundling Hospital, a Catholic charity run by the Sisters of Charity, sent more than 2,000 of these children to Louisiana.

Rachel Lemoine is a Louisiana writer who did extensive research on orphan trains. She received hundreds of letters, pictures, and information from the orphans or their families. Ms. Lemoine also wrote a 13-week series on the Avoyelles orphan train story while working for the Avoyelles Journal and the Marksville Weekly News. She also wrote articles about the orphan train which appeared in magazines such as Louisiana Life and Forests and People. The television series “Unsolved Mysteries” aired a segment on the orphan trains and contacted her for background information for their show. She was also contacted by Tri-Star Pictures about the orphan children. There have been several orphan train reunions in Louisiana.