The Manitoba government is set to announce changes to legislation affecting adoptions records and vital statistics.

Family Services Minister Kerri Irvin-Ross will table the new legislation Wednesday afternoon.

Manitoba passed legislation in 1999 that opened up its adoption records to birth parents and adult adoptees, but the access was not retroactive.

For the last decade, adoptees and birth parents have lobbied to have the law changed so they have a right to their full medical and family history even for adoptions that took place before 1999.

Penny Treflin has been searching for her birth mother since 1992.

Now 69 years old, her mother put her up for adoption in 1945.

Treflin knows very little about her family history and has many unanswered questions.

"I registered with the adoption registry in 1992,” said Treflin. "Everyone has the right to know who they are…and where they came from."

Roy Kading has been helping people track down their birth parents since he found his own in the late seventies.

He said the task is much easier for people if the adoptions took place outside of Manitoba because many other provinces have already opened up their records.

"They get enough information from the government, they can pretty well zero in on whoever,” said Kading. “In Manitoba, they can't even get their birth mother's last name."

Treflin suspects her mother would be about 90 years old, if she’s still alive.

She also wonders if she has any siblings and would be eager to meet them.

So, she continues to call on the government to help her, and thousands of others in the same situation.

"Show some kindness, show some heart. Open the damn records and let us get on with our lives,” said Treflin.