We’re getting tons of inquiries from reporters who would like to speak with adoptees impacted by the new law. If you are interested, please email us at [email protected] with your name, where you live, and any other details you have to offer. You can also contact us on Facebook.
Updated media requests: Reporters are seeking adoptees who live in or near Orange County, Westchester County, or Rockland County.
We are also interested in hearing from everyone who is in the process of applying, has applied, or is possibly on the fence about the issue. Let us know your thoughts and feelings in the comments below. This is an open thread where you speak and we all listen, so please be respectful to each other. It can also form a small historical record of what this all means to adopted people and their descendants.
I am in the process of applying at this moment. Filling out the paperwork to mail in a Sealed Records Request. After my attempt to apply online I will wait the 14 weeks and mail it in. After waiting 66 years I can wait a few more weeks.
I am overjoyed that finally we can lift the veil and see behind the curtain. It is about time to give adoptees their information. I am happy the NYS legislature saw fit to open our records. Bravo. Science has made the law a relic of the past.
#PeopleAreNotSecrets Hoping this legislation brings you peace.
Thank you Annette O’Connell for your quick response to my recent questions!! Happy to say I sent application for pre adoption OBC today to NYC Health…I will patiently await some response..To just see my time of birth in print will bring me joy!! 🙏🙏 that All Adoptees get all they’re are hoping to achieve ..I would like to thank All who have made this possible!! All Adoptees 🎉😊
I just ordered my pre-adoption birth certificate today on vital check. The cost with shipping to my address (Albany County) was $68. The processing time is 35-40 business days. I am was adopted at 5 months, I am now 31. I received un-identifying information 9 years ago but it was not enough information plus, my first name changed. Thank you to the coalition. I finally feel like I can feel that void that’s been empty for years. I can’t describe the joy that I feel right now.
Yesterday I applied online, it had to be the most nerve racking thing I’ve ever done. At 53 yrs old I have known since I was 6 I was adopted. I was loved by my large family all my life. But as I got older in life it weighed on me more, being adopted. When both my adopted parents passed I felt very alone.
To know your birth parents gave you up and to loose the ones that wanted me, raised me, loved me… I felt lost. Once my wife and I had my son, I felt at ease, for my son was the first and only direct blood family I have ever had. I felt sad that the stories of my adoptive family generations is not my hidtory. Thus telling my son things was never easy..
Fear always kept me from looking. Now with the passing of this law.. Knowing where my roots come from will at the least free me as to where I come from as I get even older.
Thank you to all the people that fought for the Adopted and forgotten community.
I await the findings and what this may bring.
Hoping this legislation brings you the peace and answers you seek. I, too, lost my parents in 2010 within 3 months of each other. Although I had searched before they died I felt so alone after they passed. Equality matters. Inner peace matters. Good luck to you!
Thank you Annette O’Connell for your quick response to my recent questions!! Happy to say I sent application for pre adoption OBC today to NYC Health…I will patiently await some response..To just see my time of birth in print will bring me joy!! 🙏🙏 that All Adoptees get all they’re are hoping to achieve ..I would like to thank All who have made this possible!! All Adoptees 🎉😊
I ordered my pre-adoption birth certificate online using VitalChek and I just received confirmation that the order was accepted and ID verified so I am officially on the list to receiving my identifying information in a couple months time! Like hundreds of others I was born in Italy 🇮🇹 and brought to the USA 🇺🇸 to be adopted by parents in New York State. I have mixed feelings about the process since it may be anticlimactic since I found my birth families back in 1991 the old fashioned way in the era before social media and DNA! Nonetheless I would never pass up this historic moment to be treated like every other human being and finally see black on white what I lawfully mine!
I found out I was adopted at the age of fifty two.A random DNA test uncovered a family member (first cousin). From there further emails and DNA tests uncovered my birth family which included three siblings and two uncles and scads of more distant relatives.
I applied for my pre adoption birth certificate today. I printed the application from NY Dept of Health and submitted it .Don’t know how long it will take.
S3419 is literally going to change my life. I have a full biological brother , my birth mother was also adopted so dan testing hasn’t been too helpful. I have no relationship with the individuals who adopted me and my only family is my daughter and I have aunts, uncles,a sibling, and possibly grandparents out there.. When I was 12 i found a letter telling me I was adopted and my adoptive mother lied to me about it and said it was a joke. The crazy thing is my intuition always knew that i wasn’t related I honestly always knew subconciously. I am anxious about knowing my name at birth and trying to find my family. Regardless of the outcome I will have my peace of mind knowing where I really came from.
I’m Heather
I was born & adopted in Syracuse NY in 1970. A few years later my British adoptive family moved back to the UK.
In 1988 as soon as I turned 18 I sought help & advice from the post adoption centre in London, full of expectation that they could help guide me on how obtain my Birth records; in much the same way as UK adoptees have been able to since 1975
Alas, they informed me that New York pre adoption birth records were sealed & I would be unable to access my own information
I was one confused 18 year old
Not accepting that at ALL, by age 19 off I went on a plane for the first time all alone, back to the USA. I was on a mission.
I was faced with the same shut doors. My sealed Birth record, I was firmly told, was ‘in the child’s best interests’
Hmmm 19 year old me didn’t accept that either
I applied to Onondaga Department of Social Services, who had my information. THAT was a humiliating experience, to say the least, although I did find the NYS adoption information registry after some time, which gave me snippets of information about my birth, but no Birth Record or truth of my origins whatsoever
Next I petitioned the Court where my adoption had been finalised. The Judge at the time gave me some hope. I held my breath. Then NO. He realised he was unable to release my original Birth record because of the (now 80 year old) sealed records law
I eventually returned to the UK, now aged 25 very, very disappointed in my Country of Birth; which I’d grown up believing to be a wonderful place. “The Land of the Free” ha. I was disillusioned to say the least that adopted citizens were discriminated against in this way
By the way, I have remained a US citizen since birth & have been able to carry a US passport since birth. But no Original Birth Certificate; oh the irony!
I married. Had 3 children, including a set of twins (where did they come from?!) apparently, unbeknownst to me until recently, a huge family tree scattered with twins through the generations
In my 30s I, once again, attempted to petition the Court where my adoption had been finalised. This time, I was positive that I had demonstrated the impossible ‘good cause’ the draconian law demanded because
I had submitted the ‘permission’ of ALL living parties to my adoption! As humiliating as it was as a grown woman, to need parental permission, I figured, how could they say no now?
I won’t go into how I came to find my Natural Family, because that is not what adoptee equal rights to our own Birth Certificates is about at all. It’s about – being treated equally to non adopted people.
Some may want their Original Birth Certificate & no ‘reunion’. That part is up to individuals alone, and most certainly, no business of the State!
Anyway, the Court again, said No.
For decades we’ve been told there is a process for NY adoptees to petition for their own Birth Certificates in this way – for “good cause”
But, in my experience it’s an impossible process and extremely patronising to Adopted adults
I travelled back to the US a few more times to attend The annual Convention of State Legislators, to help raise awareness of this cause to restore equality of access to adoptee OBCs, beginning in New Orleans in 2007
I tried my best to communicate with Legislators via email & snail mail.
I just was a tiny cog in a growing machine of incredible advocates fighting for the same restoration of adoptee equality in NY and the rest of the States, but boy have I met some of the most amazing people (and hope to get the opportunity to meet more in the not so distant future)
I hope my ramblings make sense. I’m happy for any part of this to be used in any news reports/blog/groups/anywhere lol and happy to be contacted any time
At almost 50 years old, I sincerely thank ALL the advocates who made Equality finally happen January 15 2020
Post script: My deceased Maternal Bio Grandmother was a late discovery adoptee. So I & her direct descendants will be applying for her OBC also
She was born & adopted in NY BEFORE the Sealed Records Law. So I guess it was retroactive too
I am thrilled to have lived long enough to see this law enacted! I was adopted from an orphanage in upstate NY when I was one. I had amazing, loving parents, two adopted siblings, and a wonderful childhood. Thankfully, I was told I was adopted before I understood the meaning of the word. I was told I was “chosen”, so it was always a positive thing for me.
As an adult with no health history, and growing curiosity, I spent 5 years looking for my birth mother. I literally made cross country trips, visited the orphanage I had come from, went to the hospital where I was born, went to the County Clerk’s Office and requested my OBC, and was turned away every step of the way. I ultimately had to hire a private investigator who found my birth mother for me…thank God for him. My adoptive parents supported me in my efforts, and I had the joy of knowing my birth mother for several years before she passed away. I also met my 4 maternal half sisters, which gives me even greater joy.
I did a DNA test last year in hopes of shedding some light on my birth father’s side of the family, but I have yet to discover his true name. So for now, I still have a very lopsided family tree…. but this new law does give me hope. I have several DNA matches who are close relatives from my father’s side, and I may even have more half siblings I have yet to meet.
Like so many others, I waited anxiously for the stroke of midnight E.S.T. on January 14, 2020, and eagerly requested my OBC on VitalChek.
And so, we are all still waiting…. but we are VERY good at that, aren’t we?! I can’t begin to imagine how many lives this law will touch.
God bless all of you who worked tirelessly to make it happen, and best wishes to all of you you are hoping to answer some of your lifelong questions. I know I am…
My mother was adopted. We, her children want to know our birth history from her. We believe she was given up for adoption in New York. She was born in 1923, and adopted by a wealthy influential family. She did not know that she was adopted until her father passed away suddenly, and left her in limbo. Where do we find records, if we know her adoptive family name?
It started mid 2019 with me googling how to find out if you’re adopted. I was led to the NYS Adoption Registry. I thought within 1 month I would get notified I’m not adopted. Dec 2019, at 51 years old, it was confirmed that I am adopted.
I feverishly went on a search for my birth parents fearing time was running out to contact a live being. I kept hitting brick walls: I called the hospital, attorneys, many adoption agencies, the state where I resided and New York. The only progress was with AncestryDNA. I was fortunate two uncles told me my story but I needed proof, not folklore. with my uncles help and DNA I know who’s the bio dad however he died 6 months prior to me finding out I was adopted. I want to know the who’s the bio mom. I want the facts. I read scholarly journals on the history of adoption to understand why records are sealed and why it’s near impossible to get them unsealed. Sealed records are frustrating. I’m delighted Governor Andrew Cuomo passed into law S3419 and all the people who pushed for it.
We just applied for my late mother-in-law’s pre-adoption birth certificate. She lived for 98 years without knowing her story. She died just one week before the new law became effective. A secret kept for far, far too long.
I applied for my OBC on Jan. 15 — hopefully it should arrive soon. I would like to see the information on it made publicly available on Ancestry — apparently I can add it to my tree, but there is no list of OBCs. Now that they are being unsealed, is it possible to get a list of OBCs from some government agency to Ancestry so they will be searchable by everyone?
Now, back in November of 2018 my wife wanted to take a DNA test. I found that 23andme was the best and was offering a two for one.
I never expected to get the results I did. You see, I was born in NYC and adopted when I was 6 days old. My DNA results came back with 5 second cousins and, get this, all Greek. Seems I’m 48 percent from Peloponnese; my family is from a small town called Parori just west of Sparta. My mother had me when she was 16.
Amazing huh? I recently connected to two first cousins. I also had dinner with a second cousin in NYC two weeks ago and spent 3 hours just talking. The warmth and welcome from my blood family has been overwhelming.
I also tested with Ancestry which gave me three first cousins. I also located an aunt and we speak regularly.
This past year has been wonderful. I get together with family on a regular basis. We recently traveled to Greece and met an uncle in our family village.
I sent the application in to NYC and am awaiting the results. I have no information on my paternal side as of yet.