Tracy Shand Finds Her Birth Father After Years of Searching

Tracy Shand from Melbourne, Australia was adopted when she was just 3 months old. Some 21 years later, she connected with her biological mother. She was delighted to learn about that side of her family, but when she asked about her biological father, her mother wouldn’t tell her his name.

When she uploaded her DNA information to MyHeritage, just after Mother’s Day, 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. That led her to her biological father, Bill Esman.

Watch the video of Tracy’s meeting with Bill here:

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

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

When his niece told him that Tracy had contacted her and asked about men in the family who might have been her father, he knew straight away that she must be his. “There was no second thought about it,” he says.

He wrote her an email that started, “Hi from your father.” A few days later, they met in person.

Tracy with her biological dad, Bill Esman

In November 2018, Tracy took her family to meet Bill.

“I would have loved to have known more about her growing up,” says Bill. “She has got fantastic kids.”

“My children now have a grandfather,” says Tracy. “And so I am so grateful to MyHeritage DNA. I’m just looking forward to a wonderful future with my newfound family.”

“I would encourage anyone who wants to find their biological parents to do whatever it takes to pursue it, and never give up,” Bill adds. “It can change your life.”