Push to Unseal Adoption Records in New York State

The “Unsealed Initiative” is a movement to change New York State Adoption Law. Dedicated to fighting for open records, this legislative reform organization is working directly with legislators and lobbying for the passage of the “Bill of Adoptee Rights.” On Tuesday, February 15, they, alongside Assemblyman David Weprin (D-24th A.D.), will host a press conference in Albany concerning his “Bill of Adoptee Rights” (A.2003).

“The passage of the ‘Bill of Adoptee Rights’ will provide adult adoptees with access to information that a non-adopted person has a legal right to obtain,” said Assemblyman Weprin.

In New York, an adoptee cannot access his or her original birth certificate unless he/she goes through judicial means. And even then, the outcome does not guarantee that access will be granted. This bill will allow adult adoptees to request and receive a non-certified copy of an original birth certificate and/or a medical history form if available.

For more information, you may visit the Unsealed Initiative’s website: www.unsealedinitiative.org/html/bill_summary.html. The press conference will be held in the New York State Legislative Office Building-LCA Rm. 130 at Noon. Please contact Jake Freedman at 518-455-5806 or Maryann Maltese at 718-428-7900 to RSVP.

13 General Adoption February 10, 2011

  1. This would be a major victory for us adoptees. I feel like I have a whole other identity that exists within the shadows and that I really don’t know who I am.

    - Barb Imel

  2. A friend of mine gave her child up for adoption,at birth.She would like to reconnect with the child. What procedure would she need to go through?

    - Jackie

  3. My name was Angela Waterbury. My adoptive parents renamed me. I want to know where this name Angela Waterbury came from. New York State adoption records should be unsealed so that I can look at them rather than rely on the information Children’s Aid Society supplied me, although I’m grateful. It’s my business and no one else’s. It’s between the biological mother I have never known that I want to connect with just once during this one shot at life we have, in order to thank her for what she did by giving me up. 1956 Manhattan, NY DOB. I have half siblings thanks to my married bioligcal father.

    - Angela Waterbury

  4. Why is it that adoption records are treated as state secrets that are sealed forever? My wife and I still have not been able to obtain my mother-in-law’s birth record from when she was adopted in 1916 at 6-months old. After 95-years, one would think that they could be opened. The country’s First World War records are now declassified and available. Why not birth records from that same era?

    - Tom Lanagan

  5. Why are they sealed forever ? Makes no sence. I have been researching my family tree for many years. My great grandmother was adopted somewhere in the 1870s . She died in 1946. You would think that after 65 years they could be opened .

    - Sally Cooper

  6. There should of never been a law to seal adoption records, especially if a person has been adopted at a teenage year like me. now i need my records for legal purposes of my past and for me to teach my children who there real ancestors are. I knew my mother, and love my mother and she’s been past since I was 12. The people that adopted me were very wicked to me. I want my decsendentants to know who they are.

    - lisa ramona bryant

  7. I am an adoptee looking for my birth family. I was born nov.2,1977 in brooklyn ny.i have some information but i cant get anywhere with it.I know my sibblings name and i have pictures of two of my sibblings.my birth name was kathleen fraser.my adopted name was katie price.My adopted parents physically and sexual abused me until I was 18 years old.When I was 18 years old my adopted parents told me i would be conidered dead to them.In 2004 i got married.I have two kids that want to know my side of the family.so if you pass the bill you can contact me at katiehugar23@yahoo.com.

    - katie hugar

  8. I have always wanted to give my dad the gift of knowing where he came from. He was adopted through the Spence-Chapin agency in 1942. I have been trying to help him find information about his family for years. All he wants is to know about his past and our government is keeping him from that.

    - Ted Petrie

  9. Hello Diana.

    Thank you for your note.
    If your husband was adopted through Spence-Chapin or Louise Wise we can help him with some of this information.
    Please contact our Adoption Resource Center at arc@spence-chapin.org.

    Thanks for reading Adoption Update.

    - Spence-Chapin

  10. Please contact Gladys Ramos – gramos@spence-chapin.org – in our Adoption Resource Center at . She’ll help you.

    - Spence-Chapin

  11. Hello Katie – Please contact Gladys Ramos – gramos@spence-chapin.org – in our Adoption Resource Center at . She’ll guide you.

    - Spence-Chapin

  12. Hello Ted. Than you for your comment. Please contact Gladys Ramos – gramos@spence-chapin.org – in our Adoption Resource Center at . She’ll help guide you.

    - Spence-Chapin

  13. It’s just not fair. Did anyone ever think about the kids. Everything I have ever been involved with has always been about the kids. Obama is always talking about the KIDS…all politians talk about KIDS first. Did they ever think about the kids growing up and wondering about who their parents are? Where they come from? How it effects them in the long run? How much money is going to be spent to try and locate their biological family because of a stupid SEAL THE RECORDS LAW? I have spent thousands of dollars to get non ID information with no luck. Who were they really thinking about when it came down the best interest of children? Certainly, not ME! Can someone please give me a head start and I will take it to the next level.

    - Luis Fonseca

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