SUZAN SHERMAN, a writer residing in New York City, will travel to Kansas, Nebraska, New Jersey, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Arkansas and California to conduct research for a novel, Pearl O'Shea, which traces an elderly woman's recollection of being an Orphan Train Rider from New York City to Nebraska in 1873. Prior to the establishment of foster care and adoption, the Orphan Train was a social program for unwanted and orphaned children, founded by the Children's Aid Society in New York City. From 1854 to 1929, hundreds of thousands of urban children were sent on trains to rural areas in the United States to be raised by farm families.