Upon learning at age sixteen that she was adopted, Susan’s keen interest, curiosity and determination would take her on a thirty plus year journey of search for answers. She had no idea how her story would unfold or where it would lead. She did not have a single name, just the date and place of her birth. The records of her adoption were closed. New York State adoptees have been denied access to their own birth records for decades.
Susan’s search for answers took her back to the place of her birth to Albany, to walking the streets of Manhattan, Brooklyn, to Toronto and even Ireland. As an adoptee, she had so many questions… Who did I look like? Who were my parents? Did I have siblings? This was such an important question for her for growing up an only child, or as she always referred to herself, a “Lonely Child.“
Susan will share the events and the amazing discoveries she made along the way. How DNA, Ancestry and other sites have aided in her search. With a lot of determination and hard work she has been able to put together the missing pieces of her own personal puzzle. She is no longer is that “lonely child” with the discovery of the much-wanted siblings she never knew she had.
Susan now knows the names of her parents, grandparents and cousins. She has the names of her biological ancestors and even a family tree that goes back generations.
Susan’s own search prompted a desire to help others by advocating for changes to New York’s adoption laws. On November 14, 2020 Governor Cuomo signed into law a bill allowing adoptees eighteen years of age to apply for their original birth certificates. To date it is estimated that over 20,000 adoptees have applied. That speaks volumes for the need and want for individuals to know the where they came from.
There is an old expression that goes: “If you do not know where you came from then you don’t know where you are going.” We should all have the right to answer the questions… Who Am I? Where Did I Come From?
Susan Moyer was born in Albany, New York and grew up in Syracuse, New York. She had a career in advertising and radio for many years as a copy writer, creative director, and radio commercial producer. Later she worked in special education. Susan is an author, speaker, and supporter and proponent for Adoptee Equal Rights. She has been married for 38 years to her husband, Paul, and lives in Rochester, New York where they raised their two sons.
Mini Presentation: The Toronto Cornish Association, Then and Now. Presenter John Webb is a longtime Toronto resident, with heritage that takes him back to London, Cornwall and Yorkshire.
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