Christopher Philippo, piecing together the past

Christopher Philippo puts together pieces of the past in researching gravesites and in uncovering his own history. He recently reunited the 19th-Century headstones of Robert Matthews and his son, James, with their remains. Since at least the 1930s, Robert’s stone had served as a barn door stoop on an historic property in Guilderland and James’s stone, in pieces, was edging a garden in Glenmont. Now the repaired gravestones stand side by side in Guilderland’s Prospect Hill Cemetery. Philippo was adopted and, in searching for the identity of his biological parents, has become an activist. In this week’s podcast, he gives the history of legislation in New York preventing adoptees from learning their origins and tells how, over the last two decades, he has lobbied for a law that would give adoptees the right to access their birth certificates. That bill has been passed by both the State Assembly and State Senate and awaits the governor’s signature. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.