Even though it was mentioned on this list sometime last year, I thought I
would bring it up once again.

The Hebrew Orphan Asylum of New York was a Jewish orphanage in New York
City. It was founded in 1860 by the Hebrew Benevolent Society. It closed in
1941, after pedagogical research concluded that children thrive better in
foster care or small group homes, rather than in large institutions. The
orphanage later merged with the Jewish Child Care Association.

In researching a potential online exhibition, I came across a searchable
database made available by the Center for Jewish History of those children
who were admitted into the HOA. There are currently more than 9700 names in
this database. The CJH state that this is an ongoing project.

This database contains information >from admission and discharge records for
the years 1860-1960. It also indexes names found in ledgers >from 1860-1928.
The ledgers may include the name and age of the child, the names of the
parents (if known), the child's admission and discharge dates, and any
remarks regarding to whom or where the child was discharged.

You may find that a child in the records more than once, as occasionally
there were returned to the orphanage one or more times.

The link to the database is www.cjh.org/collections/genealogy/HOA.php.

Ancestry also has HOA records >from 1860 to 1934 and has digitized images of
the records.

Best,
Steven Lasky
www.museumoffamilyhistory.com
blog: http://museumoffamilyhistory.blogspot.com
steve@...