Hello

I am looking for an anime series that I used to watch as a kid in the early 90's. It is about a little girl who is either an orphan or just abandoned by her parents, who grows up in an orphanage/foster home. However, the lady who runs the home is really mean and mistreats the poor little girl by having her do lots of work. Instead of having a room like all the other children, the little girl has her own 'room' up in the dusty attic. Unfortunately, I can't remember any particular plot elements, but the series basically focuses how this little girl tries to get by in this harsh environment.
I tagged this thread as 90's, because that was when I used to watch it, but the series might as well been created in the 80's or 70's because it had a rather old animation style. The animation style reminded me a little of the Heidi animation series, however looking up the creator of that series I couldn't find anything there (or I am just blind).
Also I believe that the series was set in Europe in the 1920's or somewhere around that time, since I can remember people getting around in carriages and old European style buildings.

Does anyone have an idea which show this might be?

Maybe Little Princess Sarah: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0168375/ which is based on the movie The Little Princess.

Thank you, I looked into your suggestion and you were right! It is the anime that I used to watch. What a lovely show. Would love to watch it again, however networks don't air such classics anymore and the only dvd set I could find is without english dub or sub. What a shame.

I don't know if you are watching this thread but if you don't mind downloading veoh web player you can watch your anime on this website w/ English subs if you want. Though you probably found it already since it's been 3 yrs since you posted this. Well anyway here is the link... http://www.watchanimeon.com/a-little-princess-sara-episode-1/

Usually I have no problems watching a dubbed series, but in this case I'd prefer the dubbed version for nostalgic reasons. But cheers for posting a source that I can fall back on ;)