Heather Dodd's grandmother died when her mother and uncles were children - and those children were adopted by different families.
When Dodd's mother tried to find her siblings, Dodd said, she was told it wasn't her business.
Dodd said the family story was the catalyst for her quest to change Missouri's law so adoptees could get copies of their original birth certificates.
And Tuesday, Missouri government will begin issuing those copies to adoptees who've been applying for them since a new law went into effect last year.
Some of those adoptees are gathering in Jefferson City tonight through Tuesday to celebrate, with a conference at the Capitol Plaza Hotel.
"It's a fundraiser for G's Adoption Registry, which helps people, for free, locate family once they find out a name," Dodd explained, "but it's also a bit of a celebration in the law changing.
"The conference on Jan. 1 is to help educate people on what to do when they get their information, realistic expectations of what they're going to be receiving (and) how to work with DNA."
The conference begins tonight with a New Year's Eve dinner and celebration, Dodd said.
"Monday morning, we'll kick it off at 10 a.m. and it goes to 4:30," with a variety of speakers and presentations about adoptions and opening up records that long have been closed.
Jefferson City lobbyist Annette Driver, who also is a birth mother, said the conference is "just really preparing adoptees with past experiences and what to expect, helping them to really get their mind ready for the experience.
And there will be other adoptees who have found their parents, who will have good and bad - but more than anything, realistic - stories about their experiences."
Monday evening, there's a presentation of Brian Stanton's play, "Blank," beginning at 7 p.m.
"And beginning at 10 a.m. on Jan. 2, they'll start distributing birth certificates to individuals who turned in their applications early," she said. "Health and Senior Services will be on hand (Tuesday morning) to accept new applications."
The law went into effect on Aug. 28, 2016, for adoptees born before 1941.
Those adoptees who were born in 1941 or since couldn't apply for their original birth certificates until Oct. 1, 2017 - and couldn't be given a copy until after Monday.
Unlike a standard birth certificate, which the state Health Department can deliver in a few minutes at the Wildwood Drive office, adoptees seeking an original birth certificate likely will have to wait about six weeks.
"The official numbers will come out next week, but we have heard they received hundreds of applications" for the new certificates, Dodd said, "and they don't have any more staff - so they are asking for patience and understanding as they pull these birth certificates out of the archives and match them up correctly for each individual."
Driver was 19 and a college freshman when she gave up her daughter for adoption; she then reconnected with that daughter and a grandson in April 2015.
"The world of closed adoptions has created such a mystery for people trying to find out who they are," she said. "(The new law) is helping people connect the dots for their background - who they are (and) to find out who they truly belong to, how they're connected."
When a person is adopted, the state issues a duplicate birth certificate with the adoptive parents' names, and under the old law, the original birth certificate was sealed in the state's health records archives.
Under the new law, state workers must compare the information on the adoption and original birth records, Dodd noted, "and then they have to make those birth certificates where they cannot be easily duplicated, to prevent fraud. So, they have to go through a special procedure."
Dodd said the availability of DNA testing by organizations like "Family Tree DNA," which will have a representative at the conference, and "Ancestry.com" and "23-and-Me" have made adoptees' search for their birth families easier.
"There's a lot to learn with it, but it's made finding family a lot easier."
Driver agreed that with technology, "In this day and time, there is little left to the imagination - people want strong, concrete information.
"And technology, scientific advancement and also the strength of the social consciousness, I think have brought us to this place."
The Legislature passed the law in 2016 allowing adoptees to get copies of their original birth certificates "for genealogical purposes only."
That restriction was intentional, Dodd said, "Because the state has to be careful to make sure that a person does not obtain two identities, to prevent fraud."
And a birth parent who doesn't want his or her name to be revealed can have that name redacted from the copy that's provided.
But, Dodd said, much of that information likely will become known anyway with today's technology.
"When we were testifying for the bill, some people were saying they were concerned about the privacy of the birth mother," she recalled. "What they don't realize is that in this day and age with the DNA testing and people finding family through DNA, it's actually more private for the mother if the adopted person can get their name from the birth certificate, then go directly to them and ask, 'Can you provide me with medical information, and do you - or do you not - wish to have a relationship?'"
That's better than contacting a possible cousin who asks other relatives, "Who had a baby back in the day?" Dodd explained. "There's no privacy in that."
Driver said adoptees "want to be able to put some things together, to find out who they are. No matter how good your life was with the adoptive parents and the adoptive family - no matter how good or bad it is - and truly how good or bad your natural parents and lineage is, you're not whole until you find out who you are."
But, she cautioned, both adoptees seeking their birth families and birth parents seeking the child they gave up should not be guided by fantasies. Instead, remember parents and children are human beings who have faults and make mistakes.
"I think people really need to tread lightly with this whole entire process," she said, noting her reunion "started out just fine" but has hit a number of rocky patches since.
"Every situation is going to be different," Driver said.
But in many cases, there will be expectations that aren't necessarily based on reality.
And even in the best of reunions, there are years of time and missed memories and opportunities that may take time to overcome, she said.
"There is a sense of grief and loss for those lost years," Driver explained, "for whatever they missed out on.
"I recommend one-on-one or family counseling to help get over the 'no connection' or to help put things together."