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1. When you know only the city/state/province of the Orphanage, but not necessarily the name:

This is the most common query we receive at Legends & Legacies and usually proves to be the most difficult research problem. The most efficient way to tackle this is to plan your next vacation to the location/area where the orphanage is/was and park yourself at the librarian's information desk. You will want to see:

• Old phonebooks, criss cross directories, or similar books. They will let you look up certain areas by address or better yet, consult the yellow pages from years gone by (look under Child Care or Children's Institutions).
• Look in the current phonebook for a listing of all the churches and contact them directly. They were most frequently in charge of the orphanages.
• Genealogy guides/adoption booklets: these are commonplace at libraries and list what they have that pertains to this unique and contemporary area of research.

But the library is just the beginning. Next stop should be the provincial or state archives of where the orphanage was located. Be sure to speak to an archivist since they can often tell you what was around the area right off the top of their head. Ask about all the schools in the area of all denominations. Orphanages were frequently considered boarding schools in some locations. If pre-1901, look up the orphan on the census as it will list the heading institution, the head of the 'household' and the occupants.

You may be able to collect bits of information and local history by checking out the following:

• city museums, historical/heritage societies, genealogy societies;
• City Hall -- talk to their public relations people who can usually give you lots of history or direct you to the appropriate people;
• Newspapers -- most newspapers retain an archives/library that is available for public use;
• Land Titles Office -- historical maps of the city, location and property ownership of churches, schools and institutions.
• Post Office (the smaller the location, the more this works!)
• Talk to the current occupants of older buildings (I found one orphanage this way by accident!)

Not everyone can make a trip to the possible orphanage location. Visit your local library and archives and find out what information you can review on inter-library loan. And since most orphanages were affiliated with a church, check out all the parishes of all the denominations in that area. Check out some of the Catholic churches are on the web.

2. When you know the name/location of the Orphanage but it no longer exists:

3. You or a relative was adopted out from an Orphanage:

4. Laws that might affect your research:

5. The questions to ask all contacts: