There are many places to search census records, but Ancestry.com has the best search capabilities for searching for orphans and orphanages.
Start your search at Ancestry with limited information.
Often, providing too much information will reduce the chance of getting a good response. By limiting the information that we provide, we allow for wider opportunities to find the person that we are searching for.
If you were looking for a girl named Mary, you would first search using:
Her first and a last name, if you knew one.
If you know what year she was born, or if you knew her approximate age, insert this in Birth
Fill in the Any Event area with the census year and the suspected location.
Use a keyword like “orphan” and mark this as exact. You do not want to see every Mary in 1880 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. You want to limit your search to one particular orphan girl.
Mark the gender appropriate for your search.
It is best to start with very limited information, and then add more details if you do not get the results that you want.
If using the keyword “orphan” doesn’t produce the result that you want, swap it out for “adopted.”
In this example, I searched for: “Josephina,” born “1871,” with an event date of 1880 in Saginaw, Michigan, and used the keyword “adopted.”
If you do not find the child that you are seeking, try removing all of the details except the Any Event (date or census year and location)
Swap out the keyword “orphan” or “adopted” and try using “orphanage” “asylum” or “Children’s Home.” You might be able to think of other keywords that might narrow down your focus on a census.
How to search for orphanages in a particular area
Limiting the information that you input to “1870” “Perry, Pennsylvania” and simply using the keyword “orphan” brings up a list of orphans in the Soldiers Orphan School and a few at the Orphan Lutheran Church. You might be able to find a sibling group, or find an orphan with a name spelled different than you would have expected.
