NY Senate passes historic bill for adoptee rights

[WePurrsevere]

Good news! Now it needs to move out of the final Assembly committee and to the NY Assembly floor for a vote.

Please contact the NY Assembly Speaker, Heastie, ([e-mail]) and ask him to allow this to move forward. We only have 8 days left in this year's session to get it through the final vote before it can go to Gov Cuomo's for his signature.

As an adoptee I no longer 'need' mine to find my birth name or parents. I've already found mine, like others increasingly have, using DNA and Genetic Genealogy but I still should be able to access MY original birth certificate the same way as non-adoptees already can theirs.

http://westchester.news12.com/story/40592174/ny-senate-passes-historic-bill-for-adoptee-rights
(June 4, 2019)

The state Senate has passed a historic bill for adoptee rights.

The bill would allow anyone over the age of 18 who was adopted to obtain their original birth certificate. Adoptees have not been able to get their records since the 1930s.

-snip-
"At 51 years old, I'm still adopted. It defines me," she told News 12. "It's really important to know where you came from. Who you were. What your name was."

O'Connell says the bill is about equal rights, not about uncovering birth parents' names, which can often be found without a birth certificate through a DNA search.

The Senate passed the bill in a 53-6 vote. The bill is now up for a vote in the Assembly. Gov. Andrew Cuomo has indicated his support for the proposal.

[customerserviceguy]

1. As a member

of the adoptees genetic genealogy community, I've watched this come up and get shot down repeatedly. Seems that there are a lot of Catholic legislators in NY who want to help the church protect its secrets.

Glad you got lucky with DNA, my heritage is French-Canadian, and I've spent four years at this on a daily basis, only being able to figure out the ancestral towns of my bio-parents, but not much more. It's really like a lottery where you play the same numbers every day.

[WePurrsevere]

2. I've seen the same and the protection

and privacy anyone assumes they have is now increasingly breaking down thanks to DNA tests.

Being a part of the Genetic Genealogy community has actually made me feel a bit more hopeful than I've been in years past. Even if this bill doesn't get passed this year, support is building and it will pass eventually. I think it helps that there's a shift going on in the general population to being much more sympathetic to adoptees looking for their biological families.

I'm truly sorry you haven't had much luck finding your answers yet. Parts of Canada can be quite a challenge due to endogamy and lack of people testing. Since you've been using the genetic aspect to look for a few years I won't insult you by rambling off my 'how to' speach.

I know that I was extremely lucky to hit the jackpot of having close matches as soon as the results from 23andMe (for American maternal) and then Ancestry (for Canadian paternal) came in. I also lucked in that both were willing to talk to me and one of the paternal close matches is a genealogist with a public tree on Ancestry that I could use to I now have the family tree I always longer for on Ancestry and I occasionally try to help fellow adoptees (and NPEs) find their puzzle pieces.

[customerserviceguy]

3. Thanks

Yeah, I educate some folks on how to do this, and some of them strike gold early on. And the endogamy thing is indeed a stumbling block. But I persist every day.

I do find that 23andMe is indeed the best place to search, most of my efforts involve people from that testing site. Also, 23andMe is clear about getting people to list ancestral surnames, and if I have the name of a matching person along with the four surnames of their grandparents, I can usually always figure out their pedigree tree, even if they don't respond to a request for information from me.

I'll get there eventually, whether by building on small matches, or hitting the jackpot with a half-sibling or half first cousin. My closest match on 23andMe went there to search for the boy she gave up for adoption in Montreal in 1955, and just this year, he did a test on Ancestry, and they found each other. It is surely breaking down barriers.

[WePurrsevere]

4. It's interesting that your experience on...

23andMe is a bit different than my own. Most of my matches haven't put down ancestral names and I'd say approx 90% are from my American bio mother's side but my Canadian matches aren't a huge population on Ancestry, My Heritage or Family Tree DNA either.

I truly hope you get some close & helpful matches soon and that when you do your reunion is all you've ever hoped for.