Ohio Adoptees Lining Up for Records, Truth, Reunions

SHARONVILLE, Ohio —The state of Ohio is unsealing adoption records for the first time in decades, which means that anyone who was adopted between 1964 and 1996 can now have access to their birth records and vital health information.

Half-sisters meet for first time, ready to review Ohio adoption records

Diana Allen, Jennifer McClure believe they share the same birth father : VIDEO

• Hundreds of Ohio adoptees gain access to birth records...
  

  At 5 weeks old, Jennifer was Beverly and Alan Lunsford's pride and joy.
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• More Ohio birth, adoption records available to adoptees
  

  Thousands of Ohio adoptees are hoping to learn more about their history, including family medical information, thanks to a law granting them access to their adoption files and birth certificates.
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• As many Ohio adoption records become unsealed, hundreds...
  

  A new law grants Ohio adoptees access to their adoption files and birth certificates. Jennifer Hutt was one of several hundred people who walked in to the Office of Vital Statistics in Columbus on Friday and applied to have her records unsealed.
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Thousands of people are already taking advantage of the new law.
On Friday night, WLWT News 5's Jackie Congedo spoke with two sisters who can't wait to research their collective past.
"There's a puzzle that a lot of pieces fell apart to, and I'm finding them and I'm putting them back together," said Diana Allen, who was adopted at birth.
She's always wondered about her story's beginning.
"I started getting nosy, and managed to sort of circumvent the closed document system and came across some papers that I probably had no business looking at," Allen said.
She managed to find the woman who she thinks is her birth mother, and with that one answer came another missing puzzle piece: news of a sister she never knew she had.
"I always thought I was the only girl," said Jennifer McClure, who got a Facebook message from Allen two years ago.
The two shared pictures and talked on the phone, but never met in person, until Friday afternoon. It was an embrace three decades in the making.
"Just to see her eyes. It's like looking at my own eyes," McClure said. "You want to know who you are, and I think that this is a good stepping stone that Diana took on her journey to learn who she is."
Allen and McClure think they share the same birth father. They're hoping a look at the newly-opened records will confirm that.
For information about how you can find your adoption records, visit the Ohio Department of Vital Statistics website.