Missouri releases original birth certificates
It’s called the Show Me State … and, yesterday, on the first workday of the year, Missouri did just that for hundreds, potentially even thousands, of adoptees: it showed them.
Because yesterday, the first official work day of 2018, was the first official day on which adoptees born in Missouri in or after 1941 and who are at least 18 years old were entitled, by law, to obtain copies of their original, unaltered, birth certificates.
The ones with those critical pieces of information that Missouri adoptees have not been entitled to since 1941.
The ones with the names of their birth parents.
Missouri has had an adoption law on its books since at least as early as 1857,1 but adoption information was not sealed — kept secret even from the adopted children themselves — until 1941.2
From that time until now, thousands of children have been adopted in Missouri. And from that time until 2016, all original birth certificates of adoptees were sealed. Nobody could see them except by court order: not the adoptive parents, not the birth parents, not the children themselves even long after they reached adulthood.
But the Missouri Adoptee Rights Act, passed in 2016, has opened the records with access coming in two stages. Adoptees born before 1941 could get their original birth certificates starting in August 2016, and there were adoptees waiting when the office opened — some using canes and walkers — to get their original certificates.3
The law allowed adoptees born after 1941 to begin accessing those original certificates yesterday, and some of them met together over the holiday weekend in a special anticipatory event called Genected: Breaking the Seal, “an event to celebrate the change in Missouri law and educate adopted adults and their families about the changes and resources that are available.” Co-sponsored by G’s Adoption Registry and Family Tree DNA, activities included a New Year’s Eve dinner, a conference with workshops, and an evening musical performance.4
It may tell you something about how important — and how emotional — access to this information is when you know that part of the centerpiece for each of the dinner tables was a box of tissues. And that was from both sides of the adoption story: presenters at the event included both adoptees and birth mothers.5
And then… the main event: yesterday, January 2, when the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services began to distribute copies of birth certificates to adoptees who pre-submitted applications. Roughly 900 people had asked for their certificates starting as early as October, when the state began to accept applications, with roughly 60 new requests coming in every week. One who received his original birth certificate — the sponsor of the bill, State Rep. Don Phillips, himself an adoptee.
Now there are some quirks in the law:
• First, the adoptee must be at least 18 years old.6
• Second, the birth parents had the right under the statute to register their objections with the state. Where one parent objects, the other parent’s name will be disclosed but the name of the objector redacted. Where both parents object, the original birth certificate won’t be provided.7 No specific number was available of birth parents who opted not to have identities disclosed, but if Missouri is anything like other states where the original birth certificates are now available, the number will be small.8
• Third, access to the certificates is limited to the adoptee: if you’re the child of a deceased adoptee, the access doesn’t pass to you.9
For more information about the new law, and how to apply for an original birth certificate under its provisions, check out the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services’ page, “Missouri Adoptee Rights Act.”
The form is there if you’re eligible to say to Missouri… Show Me.
SOURCES
- Mo. Laws. 1857, 59; 1 Wag. Stat., 256, § 1. ↩
- See generally Tyler McClay, “Missouri to Release Adoptee Birth Certificates,” The Messenger, Missouri Catholic Conference, April 2017, PDF version (http://www.mocatholic.org/ : accessed 1 Jan 2018) (“Starting in 1941, adoptions were closed. Original birth certificates containing the names of birth mothers and fathers were sealed, only to be released by the Missouri Bureau of Vital Records upon an order of the court performing the adoption.” ↩
- See generally Nancy Cambria, “Birth certificates now unlock past for some Missouri adoptees,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, posted 30 Aug 2016 (http://www.stltoday.com/ : accessed 1 Jan 2018). ↩
- See “Breaking the Seal,” Genected (https://www.genected.com/ : accessed 1 Jan 2018). ↩
- Lisa Janine Cloud, Family Tree DNA, Facebook status update, posted 1 Jan 2018. ↩
- ¶ 3, Revised Statutes of Missouri §193.218 (2016). ↩
- Ibid., ¶ 6. ↩
- In Oregon, where original birth certificates became available starting in 2000, only 87 birth parents have sought anonymity. See Helen Hill, “Oregon’s adoptee rights initiative, 20 years on,” Street Roots News, posted 17 Nov 2017 (http://news.streetroots.org/ : accessed 2 Jan 2018). In New Jersey, where more than 300,000 adoptees became eligible to receive their original birth certificates last year, fewer than 350 birth parents had asked not to be disclosed. See Judy G. Russell, “The lights go on,” The Legal Genealogist, posted 4 Jan 2017 (https://www.legalgenealogist.com/blog : accessed 2 Jan 2018). ↩
- See Heather Dodd, “Missouri Birth Certificate Access – The Missouri Adoptee Rights Act,” Missouri Adoptee Rights Movement (https://www.missouriadopteerightsmovement.com/ : accessed 1 Jan 2018). ↩
When I got my hair cut a few months ago, the barber mentioned that Ohio did the same thing: release birth certificates to children who were adopted. From what I gather, the law came out relatively recently. Used to be those records were sealed and required a court order from the judge.
The Ohio change was some time back, but the law there is complex. See https://adopteerightslaw.com/ohio-obc/
One addition to restrictions under this law: if a birthparent is OK with contact with the adoptee but wants it to occur through a third-party intermediary, the birthparent’s information is also redacted (removed). This is pursuant to implementing regulations. It’s backwards, at the least.
Correct, there are two additional options for birth parents: (1) providing info to have contact; and (2) agreeing to contact only through an intermediary. I can understand that some birth parents might want to know the child was all right, and provide health or other info, but not want in-person communication, at least not right away. So it doesn’t seem backwards to me if the parent is frightened or nervous.
Sure, but among adoptee rights activists this is what we call a “corrupt” contact preference form. It appears to be a genuine contact preference form but it is not. I actually like genuine contact preference forms because they inform the adoptee about contact, and it is rare that an adoptee ignores whatever preference is stated (for some reason we are often thought of as stalkers rather than people who just want knowledge). A genuine CPF is supposed to do only one thing: inform. In Missouri and in a few other states , the real purpose of the CPF has been corrupted by not only providing information but then working to eliminate knowledge through redactions or disclosure vetoes. It diminishes significantly what the CPF is really intended to do.
I am a Missouri adoptee and have been watching this change closely. My understanding is that an adoptee’s original birth certificate will be marked “For Genealogy Purposes Only” — or something to that effect. It will not be a certified birth certificate used to obtain other identity documents (e.g. driver’s license).
That’s correct: the adoptee’s legal identity remains that shown on the amended birth certificate, so the original birth certificate cannot be used for identification or other similar purposes.
It will be interesting to see if my original birth certificate will be allowed for obtaining tribal membership. I have Cherokee ancestors on the Dawes Roll and want to use that original certificate as part of the “chain” to prove descent. (I used DNA testing to figure out birthparent identities.)