Did you know that Minnesota’s Department of Children Youth and Families is storing adoptees personal belongings? Items date back 100 years! Personal belongings in adoption files may have been contributed by birth parents, adoptive parents, adoptees, or case workers. Items can still be submitted at any time. Between the 1940s and 1960s, the department began removing and safekeeping personal belongings, logging and storing them separately with references in adoption files for easy retrieval.
This collection of 9,500 items consists largely of photos, while the rest includes documents such as certificates (wedding, baptism, birth), report cards, personal drawings, cards, and newspaper clippings. Less common items may even include baby teeth and locks of hair. Some files contain multiple items.
The state has been working to seek public feedback on how to move forward with sensitively storing these items and to spread awareness in the community on how adoptees can receive their items. To learn about this important project and to subscribe for updates, Personal Belongings Engagement | Minnesota Engage DCYF.
Foster Adopt Minnesota will be hosting an upcoming webinar “Personal Belongings” Project: Returning Records to Adoptees & Birth Families on Wednesday, June 18th, from 11:30am- 1pm. Find out more and register HERE.
Renee Banas is Kin link Program Director at Ampersand Families
