I have searched for train riders in my town for several years, and have not been able to find very many. In 1986, I realized that my father, Maurice de Leleu must have ridden an Orphan Train to Texas. He died when we were young, so we never had a chance to find out very much about him. All that he ever told us was that he came to Texas on a train from Brace Farm School in Valhalla, New York and that he got off of the train at the railroad station in Weatherford and walked across the street to a hotel to wait for the John W. Potts family to pick him up.

After my mother's death, we found a picture of him with a group of boys standing in front of the Children's Aid Society Building in Now York City. I realized then that he was a train rider. I wrote to the Children's Aid Society and they sent me all of the information that they had on him and a small picture that was in his file. I know that both of his parents had died when he was nine years of age. They left three children. The two oldest went on their own, but he lived for three years with an aunt and uncle In Brooklyn, New York. In 1912, he was referred to the Children's Aid Society from the Brooklyn Society for Cruelty to Children. He was able to keep in contact with his sister and brother which we were able to know.