My friend’s (deceased) mom was adopted, and I’ve been helping her search for her mother’s birth parents. Admittedly, since I have no experience with adoptions, I’ve provided more moral support than technical assistance.

Her mom was born in 1924 and adopted two years later, all in Minnesota. She passed away in 2001. Adoption records in Minnesota are sealed by statute for 100 years.

Today my friend sent a ‘Petition for Access to Confidential or Sealed File’ to the District Court in the county where the 1926 adoption took place. I thought she developed a compelling case for the court to grant her access to adoption files. The following is a portion of what she wrote.

"My reasons for making this request are:

a) Her biological parents would be well over 114 years old and are no doubt deceased leaving me to conclude that no harm would come from releasing the information in these files.

b) My mother had seven children of which I am the second oldest. We range in age between 72 and 60. One of my sisters has Membranous Subaortic Stenosis and is undergoing a second open heart surgery at Mayo Clinic in efforts to improve her heart function. Her physicians have requested family history of heart conditions and she is only able to report on information known about our father’s family. With the names of her biological parents, we could access their death certificates and hopefully get some medical information that might be helpful even if no medical information is in the adoption file.

c) Another medical concern is that our mother developed Juvenile Diabetes when she was two years old. So far none of her children or grandchildren have developed that disease, but we would like to learn about any family history of it in her family, in case we need to be more vigilant watching for it in grandchildren. This might be in files or available through death certificates.

d) In addition, my siblings and I all have a great desire to learn about our heritage. The nationality of our mother is unknown to us, and we would very much like to know where our maternal ancestors originated and to learn more about our roots.

e) And finally, our grandmother shared stories about my mother’s birth mother and indicated that she had hesitated for about six months before placing our mother for adoption. This story always bothered our mother, leaving her troubled by not knowing the reasons her mother gave her up after that long of a time. She had a strong feeling of rejection that affected her self-esteem all of her life. We all had a lot of compassion for her feelings and would like to finally get answers to her questions if they are in the file."

We anxiously wait for the judge's decision.