Tracy Shand from Melbourne, Australia, was adopted at the age of the three and 21 years later she was able to connect to her biological mother but as wholesome as that was, she did not know anything about her father's existence.

When she uploaded her DNA information to MyHeritage in 2019, Tracy discovered a 14% match — a likely first cousin, or great-nephew.

Tracy contacted the match and asked about males in the family who might meet her father’s profile and that led her to her biological father, Bill Esman.

Bill had never known he had fathered a child, but ever since the relationship ended with the sudden departure of a woman he was then dating, he had wondered.

Bill said: “The possibility of having a daughter would have gone through my head quite a few times, and I wondered what it would be like.

“But I never really seriously thought anything about it and the fact that her mother never tried to contact me or my family, I suppose, contributed to that.”