Adoptees Can Access Birth Certificates Under New NY Law

(AP) -- New York has become the 10th state to allow adopted adults unrestricted access to their original birth certificate, a step that will help some investigate their family histories.

A new law which took effect today does away with restrictions dating back to the 1930s that required adoptees to seek a hard-to-get court order to access their original birth records.

Those rules had originally been intended to protect the privacy of parents who relinquished their children.

But attitudes have shifted about the rights of adopted individuals, and social media and DNA technology have made it easier for long-separated relatives to connect.