Tomorrow, more than 400,000 adult adoptees will have the chance to examine — or at least request — their own birth certificates as a 32-year-old law slips off the books. The new access point will cover birth certificates from Jan. 1, 1964, to Sept. 18, 1996.

“This is a major win,” said Betsie Norris, executive director of Adoption Network Cleveland.

This is fairly unusual, because only six states currently allow full access to birth records for those who were adopted earlier in life. 

People who are interested in obtaining their original birth certificate may send in a notarized request to the Ohio Department of Health. 

This article appears in Mar 18-24, 2015.

Eric Sandy is an award-winning Cleveland-based journalist. For a while, he was the managing editor of Scene. He now contributes jam band features every now and then.