NEW YORK ADOPTION HISTORY

New Netherlands

• The Old Homestead
• Notes for Maria Truax, containing translation of adoption decree from 1642.
• See an image of this document
  
• Jennifer Smith's Genealogy Page
• Maria Truax
  
• Churchyard/Orr Family Museum (Genealogy)
• Acknowledgement of paternity of Maria Truax's child by a man other than her husband (1642, New Amsterdam).
  

Duke of York's Laws 1665-75

• Births, Marriages and Burials to be Registered
• Fornication
• Marriages
• In what Cases it shall not be punishable to remarry
• Orphans

Laws of the Colony of New York

• 1684; A Bill Concerning Orphans
• 1774; An Act for the Relief of Parishes and other Places from such Charges as may arise from Bastard Children born within the same.

Laws of the State of New York

• 1873 - An Act to legalize the adoption of minor children by adult persons.

"Holley Bills"

• This is a memorandum (two pages) from 1935 indicating to Governor Lehman that he should veto the "Holley Bills" which would have required false entries of bparents' and the adoptee's name on birth certificates. He did veto the bill.

Joint Public Hearing
Sealed Adoption Records and the Search for Identity

• April 28, 1976

Orphan Trains (Approximately 1954-1930)

• Orphan Train Riders History
• An account by New Yorker Howard Hurd, sent west in 1925.
• Orphan Trains
• Family History Research
• The American Experience - The Orphan Trains
• Information about the public television program, and a transcript of the program.

Back to New York Adoptee Rights
Current New York Adoption Law

Copyright 1999, Bastard Nation