Cecelia Wisniewski and the Lives of Her Daughters - Series Post #2

Hello, and welcome back! Today I'm sharing a little more about childhood of Esther and Ruth Caskey, Cecelia's daughters. Please read the first post in this series for more background.

As I shared in the first post of this series, two of my cousins (first cousins twice removed, to be exact), spent much of their childhood in an Orphans' Home in the 1930s and 40s. Their mother, Cecelia (Wisneski) Caskey, died suddenly and quite tragically in 1927. Their father, Jacob, was alive, but apparently became unable to care for the girls, since he was a patient in the Mayview state mental hospital by 1930. 

On the 1930 and 1940 Censuses, it says that the Orphans' Home was located in Jefferson Township, Butler County, Pennsylvania. This was a little surprising to me, because the Caskeys, including Jacob's relatives, lived in the Pittsburgh area. Butler County is north of Pittsburgh, but adjacent. The Wisniewskis lived south of Pittsburgh, in Washington, PA by 1930. On the census records, no name of the orphanage is given, and I wondered how many there were in the area, and if I could find any information about it.

It turned out that with some Googling I was able to confirm that Esther and Ruth Caskey were residents of the Evangelical Lutheran Concordia Orphans and Old Peoples Home, founded in 1881. Although the orphanage closed in 1958, Concordia Lutheran Ministries (as it's now called) continues to provide a wide range of services to seniors and the elderly in need of care. They have many locations, but still have a facility on the site of the original Concordia Orphans Home. Wonderfully, they shared a lot of Concordia's history on their website, especially during 2021 for their 140th anniversary.

I learned from the Concordia website that there was a farm on the property, where the older children worked with the staff to grow their food and care for livestock. I also learned that they had an annual summer festival and Christmas program where the children would sing. There are several photos of the orphanage and of the children who lived there on the website and in the Concordia newsletters from 2021.

Here is a link to the photo of the boys and girls of the Concordia Orphans Home from 1932: https://concordialm.org/blog/140-years-of-caring-concordia-s-history-of-service/ I don't have permission to share the photo directly, but please do check it out.

I've written to Concordia Lutheran Ministries to ask them if they can share any names associated with the photos, or records that might give me more insight into the daily lives of my cousins Esther and Ruth. I hope I'll hear back from them soon.

Do you have any orphan ancestors in your family history? I'd love to hear about them in the comments. Thanks for reading!