For Beth Suter, Wednesday was a day of emotion. 

The Rochester native and adoptee was one of the nearly 1,700 or so New Yorkers who filed to get access to her birth certificate as a new law took effect allowing them access to the document. 

"It's quite emotional," she said through tears. "I didn't really realize until I found half of my birth family that there was a white noise that was the background of my heart and as soon as I found them and saw people who looked like me, it was such a heart expanding moment and that white noise has almost dissipated."

Suter said she applied for her birth certificate earlier on Wednesday morning. 

The law allows adoptees 18 and older to access their pre-adoption birth certificates. They can apply for them online at VitalChek.com or through a paper application mailed to the state Department of Health. For those born in New York City, they can order information through nyc.gov/vitalrecords. 

"This one was personal," said Democratic Assemblywoman Pamela Hunter, an adoptee herself. "Obviously personal for me, but it's a personal bill. It allows people an option and an opportunity that they've never been able to have before."

The law taking effect was celebrated by lawmakers from both parties as well as adovcates -- an increasingly rare bipartisan sight of Republicans and Democrats offering kudos for supporting a measure.   

"Every person has the right to know where they come from, and this new law grants all New Yorkers the same unrestricted rights to their original birth records," Gov. Andrew Cuomo said. "After years of being denied this basic human right, adoptees will finally be able to obtain critical information about their origins, family histories and medical backgrounds."