  In the list of young stellar objects compiled by Megeath et al. (2012) for
the Orion A molecular cloud, only 44 out of 1208 sources found projected onto
low extinction (Ak<0.8 mag) gas are identified as protostars. These objects are
puzzling because protostars are not typically expected to be associated with
extended low extinction material. Here, we use high resolution extinction maps
generated from Herschel data, optical/infrared and Spitzer Space Telescope
photometry and spectroscopy of the low extinction protostellar candidate
sources to determine if they are likely true protostellar sources or
contaminants. Out of 44 candidate objects, we determine that 10 sources are
likely protostars, with the rest being more evolved young stellar objects (18),
galaxies (4), false detections of nebulosity and cloud edges (9), or real
sources for which more data are required to ascertain their nature (3). We find
none of the confirmed protostars to be associated with recognizable dense cores
and we briefly discuss possible origins for these orphaned objects.
