By Brenda Flanagan
Correspondent
“For me, there was always that hunger for that answer. I need to know the truth about where I come from,” said Bob MacNish.
Someone gave birth to MacNish in Weehawken back in 1944 then gave him up for adoption three days later. All he knows is she was probably Italian.
“A young girl, if she was 16 or 17, and got pregnant it was shameful,” MacNish said. “Especially if she was Catholic — Italian Catholic. Imagine coming home and telling your dad, ‘Oh, Dad, I’m pregnant.’”
Adopted into a Scottish family of farmers in central New Jersey, MacNish thrived but claims he always felt a little different. His adoption was private — arranged by an attorney. His original birth certificate legally sealed.
For decades, MacNish has wondered, “Who am I? Who are my biological parents? Where are they from? Where did they grow up? You know, there’s a whole other family over here that we don’t know about.”
He may soon find out. MacNish joined the NJ Coalition for Adoption Reform, an advocacy movement that finally persuaded lawmakers in 2014 to pass a bill granting adoptees access to their sealed birth records. Coalition spokeswoman Pam Hasegawa — herself adopted — says the law finally takes effect Jan. 1. An estimated 100,000 to 150,000 New Jersey adoptees can submit this application and they will get answers.
The options for birth parents who gave up children for adoption:
“Birth parents have had the opportunity for over a year to file a contact preference form with the Department of Health to say how they would like to be contacted or if they would like to be contacted,” Hasegawa said.
The new law also says birth parents who don’t want to be found have until Dec. 31 to file paperwork and get those records redacted. Born in New York, Hasegawa had access to her birth mother’s name, but it was DNA testing that helped locate her family.
She said, “I felt stunned! Overwhelmed. It is overwhelming and we just felt like we’d always known each other.”
MacNish tracked down a first cousin too, using DNA test results, and thinks he might have found his birth mom.
“You can’t do anything unless you get a last name,” he said. “But I wont know that til January when the records are released. Here’s the truth, the final truth, of who you really are.”
MacNish has already submitted his application and after a lifetime of waiting, hopes to finally learn about his birth mother and get those questions answered.
To submit redaction requests, contact preferences and requests for a copy of an adoptees’ original birth certificate visit: www.state.nj.us/health/vital/record.shtml
To obtain a copy of these forms by mail call: 609-292-4087 extension number 529.
For additional information visit: www.nj-care.org or email them at njcare.staff@gmail.com
To contact the Adoptees Liberty Movement Association visit: www.almasociety.org