ACCESS CONNECTICUT EFFORT SUCCEEDS!

After a multi-year effort by a dedicated coalition of stakeholders, including CCA,   the Connecticut General Assembly passed the Access to Original Birth Certificate law in 2021.   Public Law  21-21 restored the right to obtain an original birth certificate to all persons over the age of 18 in Connecticut.    A partial law had been passed in 2015, but this only permitted limited access (those born after 1983).   

As of July 1, 2021,  ANY adult 18 or older, born in CT has the right and ability to obtain a non-certified copy of their Original Birth Certificates (OBC) from the Vital Records Office (VRO) just like every other citizen of Connecticut. This right was retroactively taken away by the legislature in 1975.     The passage of this law makes Connecticut the 10th state to allow access to Original Birth Certificates, joining NY, CO, RI, ME, NH, OR,  AL, AK, and KS.

All adult adoptees may obtain their original birth certificates through the town clerk* in the town where they were born. It will cost $65. If an adoptee or their descendant doesn’t know the town where the adoptee was born, they can either look on their amended birth certificate (to our knowledge that information was not changed) OR they can request DCF check their index of all adoptions in the state of Connecticut since 1919.

 For detailed information and instructions please visit:

https://portal.ct.gov/dph/vital-records/adoptions-and-foreign-births

 For related information about searching for birth family history if you were adopted in Connecticut please see:

https://portal.ct.gov/dcf/ctfosteradopt/adoption#AdultAdoptionSearch