Last Friday (January 2, 2009), a new law passed in Maine went into effect. The new law allows adoptees the right to copies of their original birth records – complete with the names of their parents. Maine’s new law includes a protection for birth parents by allowing them to state that they do not wish to be contacted by the child. But at the very least, this gives adoptees enough information that they should be able to construct their family history, with or without the birth parents’ help.
So, as you can imagine, a good sized group of folks lined up at Maine’s Vital Records Office in Augusta, on Friday – all there to obtain records that were not legally obtainable for the last half-century.
New Hampshire adopted a similar law a short time ago, so it looks like New England is leading the way when it comes to adoptees rights.
For more information, read Glenn Adams AP article in the January 3, 2009 edition of Nashua Telegraph.
Yes. I too was adopted at birth in 1960. Now – for the last three years I have been on the search here in Texas for my real family. I think even back in those days they should given rights to the ones that were being adopted – their birth parents records, etc. Birth records should not been kept closed when the children were adopted. I have also hear horrible stories back a long time ago of black marketing of babies. I have not given up on this. I have a few leads and it goes back to where I was born. Two years ago the paper here did a story about being adopted and they wanted people to tell their stories. I did a story on how I was adopted, and that I was looking for my real family. I got a letter from the state board here in Texas telling me how to get one the Internet. They sent me some information about my birth record, going to the main sources in Austin. I know where I was born and the year, so I found out a little about my real parents’ names. I know about where they could be – close by here. I am still doing a lot of searching and am not giving up yet. I wish anyone out there who is looking for their real family members the best of luck. Maybe they can do like I did, and go to where they were born and put a story in the papers of your home town. I enjoyed putting my story out there and it helped a lot. Now all I have to do is put the story in the paper of the town where my real father is and go from there. I am fixing to do this real soon, because I want to know if I have any sisters or brothers out there. The town that my family is from is around Denton, Texas. I found a little history about my great grand father, so I am fixing to get a hold of the Denton, Texas newspaper real soon. they have already said they would do the story for me. So if anyone is trying to find family members, put it out there as a story in the papers. It could help. Have a great day. Carol from Texas