Joseph & Mary Nielson/Neilson
Madrene White	we are searching for information about Joseph Neilson who came to NY (the Bronx) from Sweden with wife Mary. They had around 5 children. One of them was my husbands father, Albert, he was taken away from his parents and taken on the Orphan Trains back to Nebraska. There, he was adopted by Rufus White and his wife, Carrie. He had a happy life with the Whites. He married Amy Mitchell and they had 9 children and lived in Lexington, Nebraska. We would like to know more about the Neilsons and if there are other relatives in Sweden. Joseph worked as a hired hand, maybe on ships. He had brothers. Don't know anything else.
Jo Anne Sadler	More information would help, like dates, ages. Your best bet is to try to secure his adoption records in Nebraska and in New York. There is a Nebraska Orphan Train organization that could provide help and advice. If they were Catholic, the adoptions would have been handled by the New York Foundling Hospital, this was done directly with the local parish priest and was not the meat market auction type situation that was done with the other agencies. Since they were Swedish they would most likely have been Protestant. There were over a hundred organizations handling these adoptions (mostly were foster arrangements, not formal adoptions), searching on Cyndislist.com would provide more contacts. http://www.rootsweb.com/~neadoptn/Orphan.htm After 9 months I was able to secure records from 1898 from the New York Foundling Hospital but only after providing documentation that I was a direct descendant of one of the orphans (including a picture ID).
Hopkins	Rufus, Carrie and Albert appear in the 1920 US census. Albert is listed as 15 yrs old, born in New York and no indication is given that the boy is adopted - he lists Rufus and Carrie's birth states for his parents birthplaces. 1910 census lists Albert N. as foster son of Rufus and Carrie - lists his age as 6, born in NY - no indication of parent's birthplaces.