AP article NY Updating Storage of Birth, Death, Marriage Records, etc.

This is bad news people. It looks like information will be harder to get to.

Here's the link to the article:

NY updating storage of birth, death, marriage, other records

Hawaii Becomes an Original Birth Certificate (OBC) Access State

Hawaii has passed legislation to allow adopted people access to their Original Birth Certificates (OBCs). Hawaii is an Access State as of 6/21/2016.

ACT 80, HB2082 HD1 SD1, 6/21/2016


This bill allows adopted individuals who have attained eighteen years of age, adoptive parents, and natural parents unfettered access to the adopted individual’s sealed adoption records. (SD1) ‪

Birth Books aka Birth Indexes for the Five Boroughs of Manhattan

I just found out today that the Birth Books (aka Birth Indexes) for the 5 boroughs of NY are no longer available at the Milstein Division of the New York City Public Library. The Milstein Division no longer holds New York City birth indexes for years after 1909. The indexes had been on loan to the New York City Public Library from the Department of Health, who recently requested that the NYPL return the collections, including the death indexes after 1948 in accordance with the City's Health Code.

I asked the librarian if she could give me the address of the Department of Health. She gave me the following:

• Office of Vital Records | New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene | 125 Worth Street, Room 144  | NY, NY 10013 

For possible access to the indexes, inquire with: 

• Nicholas Elcock | Chief Privacy Officer | nelcock@health.nyc.gov

Note:

• In Room 119 of the Milstein Division available on microfilm are birth, marriage and death indexes for NYC, with date ranges that vary with each borough - however none of the indexes include 1911 or subsequent years.
• Family Search makes available NYC birth indexes freely searchable (1846-1909)
• Italian Geneology Group
• Municipal Archives at 31 Chambers Street, New York, New York
• NYC Public Library, Milstein Division, Introductory Guide to Researching Vital Records

Now that the birth books are at the Department of Health, Office of Vital Records, I wonder if people can still request the books and search through them. ?? 

If I had not been able to search for the number on my birth certificate, in the actual 1953 birth book, I would not have found my name at birth. For more information on this, see my post, The Search, Post 2, Finding my Original Last Name

The Search - Post 3 - The Sacred Letter

I knew my adoption was facilitated by New York Foundling Hospital in Manhattan so around April of 2002 I wrote to them to find out what they could tell me about my life. I received the following letter which I consider to be sacred in my life.

March 13, 2002

Dear Ms. Zappulla:

In response to your recent request for non-identifying information, I am happy to share the following with you. I note, however, that you are interested in identifying information. This we are not permitted to give under New York State law. I am enclosing a list of agencies and websites that may be able to assist you.

Your birth mother, according to our record states that she was around 18 years old. Her mother died when she was very young and her father tried to raise her and her brother. When she became fifteen her father boarded her out as a domestic and used her meager earnings to help support the family. As a consequence she never had any formal schooling. She refused to continue in this way of life and left Puerto Rico with friends and came to New York where she lived in a furnished room with her friends in an undesirable neighborhood. Her maternal uncle invited her to live with him but she found this home too strict and left to live with friends and unrelated people. She is described as being short with dark hair and eyes and very pretty.

Your birth mother was introduced to your alleged father who was a white, single man, born in Puerto Rico, in his early 20's and in the U.S. Army - later stationed abroad.

You were admitted to the New York Foundling Hospital on November 29, 1953 on a Police Affidavit when you were nine months old. Your mother had asked a friend to take care of you on November 27, 1953, and never returned for her child. The woman called the police and you were admitted to our care on November 29, 1953. You weighed 20 lbs. and was described as having black hair, brown eyes, wearing a yellow snow suit and hat, white dress and sweater.

The Department of Welfare was notified and you were assigned a name and religion in sequence and transferred to Sheltering Arms on March 16, 1954. Your birth date was also assigned. A diligent search and investigation was made to locate your mother. However, she showed up at the New York Foundling on June 14, 1954, inquiring as to your whereabouts. She was vague and evasive about giving any information about herself and disappeared again. She was located in January 1955 and was requested to appear at the Department of Welfare to plan for you. She did not keep the appointment and another search was made for her until February 1958 when the search ended. She knew that you were being well taken care of and made no attempt to contact us further.

You were born at Greenpoint Hospital, Brooklyn on February 24, 1953 (verified by the Board of Health). You were baptized on April 4, 1957 by Rev. William Kopfman, O.P., and placed in your adoptive home on March 25, 1958, after a release was given by the Department of Welfare. You were legally adopted on March 10, 1959 in Surrogate's Court of Nassau County.

I have enclosed your medical record while you were in care at the Foundling. If you have further questions, I am in the office on Mondays and Wednesdays from 9:30 to 2:30 and can be reached at 212-633-9300 Ex. 3293.

May you find peace and contentment in your life.

Sincerely,

Sister Mary deSales Collins, M.S.W.

Social Worked

Enclosures.

____________________________

Until I received the above letter, I always had a terrible gnawing, anxious feeling about my adoption. The feeling was constantly with me. Why? Why? Why? was the reframe. As I read this letter, the gnawing feeling eased out of my body and I have lived a life of greater peace since then.

Also I called Sister Mary deSales Collins to thank her for her letter. She was so pleased to hear from me. She said she sends letters out and doesn't usually find out how they affect people. I let her know the affect on me was great and positive and I appreciated her detailed response.

Lastly I told her I did research when I was in my early 20's and found out my last name was "Gonzalez" (see The Search - Post 2). I told her I knew she couldn't give me any identifying information but asked if she could just confirm that I had found the correct name. She said, "Yes, that's correct". OMG what peace she gave me.

____________________________

My next post on "The Search" will be about what I found in recent years through DNA testing.

The Search, Post 2, Finding my Original Last Name

Around the age of 21 I asked my adoptive mother what else she knew about my birth mother and family. Could she give me any other details? She told me I was born at Greenpoint Hospital in Brooklyn. However, my questions made her angry and she wanted to know if I had been happy living with them and why would I ask such questions. The conversation didn’t go anywhere good and I realized I wouldn’t be getting any further information from her, nor would she be supportive of my plans to continue the search. I never brought this subject up to my adoptive mother again. I loved her, didn’t want to hurt her and thought it was best to proceed on my own.

+

When I was about 23 years old, I found a little ad in my town’s Penny Saver advertising for  "Alma" (the Adoptees Liberty Movement Association), which was big in New York City at the time. I was immediately interested and contacted them to get their application. I couldn’t have the application sent to my home though, as my adoptive mother might surmise from the envelope that I was searching, so I opened a Post Office Box in a nearby town. 
I joined ALMA, attended one meeting, with many, many other people, and received their newsletters. From ALMA I learned that the numbers on my birth certificate – 156-53-308087 - could point to my name in the New York City birth books for my birth year.

I was working full time then, so on a weekend I went, with a friend, to the New York City Public Library’s genealogy section. I brought my birth certificate with me and asked the person there to tell me which of the numbers on the certificate would point to my name at birth. She said it would be “8087”.

Off we went, my friend and I, to the stacks to find the Brooklyn birth books for 1953.

She took one book, I took the other. The lists of names in the books were in alphabetical order and all the boroughs of New York City were mixed in together.  We went up and down the columns, looking for 8087. We were not successful that first weekend. The next weekend I went again, this time by myself. I searched up and down those columns again. Finally I hit pay dirt...8087. It said, "Female, Gonzalez" and had a small “k” in the row representing Kings County in Brooklyn.

I was excited. This was wonderful. No, wait, this is a big shock. I’m not Italian? I was brought up to think of myself as Italian, and now I was finding out I'm of Spanish descent. Wait, Wait...I had to process this information. It took decades to accept this information. Eventually I found my exact nationality and am quite proud to claim it and to know who I actually am.
Note: If you decide to go to the Geneology Room of the NYC Public Library for your own research, it is located at the Irma and Paul Milstein Division of U.S. History, Local History and Genealogy ( http://www.nypl.org/locations/divisions/milstein ), Room 121, The New York Public Library, 476 Fifth Avenue (between 42nd and 40th streets), New York, NY 10018-2788. (212) 930-0828 - e-mail: history@nypl.org 
____________________________________________
My next post regarding The Search will be about a letter I consider sacred that I received from New York Foundling Hospital.

#SimplePieceOfPaper Challenge

An adoptee by the name of Alida Hawks and the NYAdoptionEquality.org created the challenge #SimplePieceOfPaper, referring to the OBCs (Original Birth Certificates) of adoptees. Show your support of restoring access to birth records and the OBC by Posting on Facebook and Twitter like this:

Adoptee (me)

or like this:

My Friend Lisa - Ally to Adoptees

Don't forget the hashtag, #SimplePieceofPaper. On Facebook images tag NYAdoptEquality.org so they can also share the page.

Many Adoptive Parents AND Birth Parents AND Adoptees all support open OBC access legislation.

The Search, Post 1, Breaking the Silence

My being adopted was never spoken about in my family. Of course my parents knew I was adopted, but so did aunts, uncles and cousins. No one ever mentioned it to me.  However, unbeknownst to everyone, I remembered meeting my adoptive parents. The memory was of me rocking on a rocking horse and my future adoptive mother was playing peek-a-boo with me. My future adoptive father was sitting to the side and smiling. I felt happy.

I also had a very clear memory of me being a very young child and riding a peddle car in the hallway of what seemed to be a hospital. I'm laughing and having a great time and a nurse is holding a doorknob of a door and about to open it for me to ride through. I don't remember what happens after I ride through it though. Lastly, I had a vague memory of sitting in a room with a lot of other children trying to see the TV around the heads in the row in front of me.

Having all these memories is great, but when your parents don't tell you you're adopted, and no one talks to you about it, and you're just a kid, you begin to wonder if the memories are real. When I was around 10 years old, I couldn't take it any more, and asked my mother if I was adopted. She smiled and said, "Yes, you were. Daddy and I brought you home on a beautiful day." I said, "I thought so mom, because I remember meeting Daddy and you." She also mentioned that I never said anything about my past. That was because, except for the memories stated above, I didn't remember anything. Years later, when I put myself into therapy, my analyst said that I had a classic case of amnesia.

One other thing my mother told me that day was that I was 4 when they brought me home. This shocked me. Why wasn't I adopted when I was younger? Was someone trying to hold on to me? What happened to me between birth and four years old? Why 4 years old? Why not as an infant as happens to so many adoptees.

That conversation and those new questions marked the beginning of a lifelong search for knowledge of my past and for my birth family, particularly my birth mother. For many, many years to follow I constantly asked myself, "Why?, but Why?, What happened?, Is she alright? No matter what I did, the constant gnawing questions were rolling around in the back of my mind.

It would be about 12 more years until I started my real sleuth work.