Between 1854 and 1929, an estimated 250,000 orphaned, abandoned, and homeless children were placed out during the Orphan Train Movement. About 30 placing organizations sent children from New York City and other large cities to rural communities across the US and ten known countries, making it one of the largest social reform relocation efforts in the nation's history and the beginning of documented foster care in America. In 1854, the first group of children was sent out of New York by the Children's Aid Society and the New York Juvenile Asylum because these children needed more than an orphanage to call home. Foreign and domestic immigration to US cities, illness, unsafe work conditions, wars, and poverty were among the forces that led to children being placed in new homes across the United States. According to modern research, one in twelve Americans is connected to an Orphan Train Rider.