Josephine Fren, Orphan Train Rider

Josephine Fren (b. 1893)

Josephine Fren's letter appears in the 1901 report of the NYJA. Her name was found with the Martin H. Crider family of Otter Creek, Lasalle County, IL in the 1900 census. Josephine was just 7 years old and was listed as the adopted daughter of the family. Her birth parents were noted as being born in Turkey. The Crider's had two grown children living with them at the time, as well as three non family members who were working on the farm. In 1910 Mrs. Crider was widowed and lived in her home with one daughter and a 16 year old girl named Marjorie Frelun whose parents were from France and Russia/Syria. Josephine/Marjorie did not appear in later censuses with the family.

Inconsistencies in the records of the orphans, as to date of birth and place of birth are common. The orphans also sometimes have imaginative spellings of their names that make it difficult to trace them, or confirm their identity. Sometimes the children wanted to adopt a new identity that made them feel as if they "fit in." Placing children of anything less than Western European extraction was difficult, and children from other places would have felt uncomfortable in Illinois, where the population was more homogenous.