BONUS: The Wild Things People Have Found Out From A DNA Test

0:00Gary and Tommy's bonus puffed eyes. This is fascinating and we would love to hear what you found out using ancestry.com or DNA or any of those type of things because, okay, I'm going to start. Fascinating is not the word I'd use. What do you mean? I think it's devastating. Sure, but it can be both. Do you not find this fascinating? Sorry. Okay, don't get cranky. I just mean... But I didn't mean like, it's fascinating and... Sorry, I feel like we get to say it's fascinating because we're an observer. But I think about being in this situation and I think it would be so heartbreaking. Yeah. A completely agree. Yeah. But don't you think it's fascinating? Yes, it is fascinating. So, Sasha, I'm going to get the pronunciation of her last name wrong. I'm going to go with Susa Franske. Never felt like she belonged in her family, but her mother always insisted that she was not adopted. And the mum wasn't telling a lie. But at the age of 30, Sasha decided to use ancestry.com to find out a bit more about her Polish heritage.

1:06So how had her mum told her she'd been conceived? I believe using... I don't know if she mentioned IVF, but that she had given birth to her. And both those things are true. She found out through ancestry.com that she was not related to her father or her mother. And she thought initially it's just an era by the website. And then she dug a little deeper. And she found out she also had a sister that she'd never heard of and an aunt who lived in the same town. So then she got in touch with the aunt. And she said, do you know if I was conceived via IVF? And she said that's when the pending dropped. This was on ABC's 730 program. So this isn't Australia. It was a round of IVF at the Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney. And they implanted the wrong embryo into the mother. So... I feel like this mix-ups happened recently.

2:06Or there's been some bungle recently in IVF in Australia at one of the IVF communities. I remember which one it was. I heard this on Talkback earlier today, which is where it first peaked my interest. And they were saying this is the second recent case. It's specifically the wrong embryo being put into the wrong person. And how fascinating. She said she got in touch with the clinic. And they were basically like, yeah. Yeah, we think there might have been a mix-up. That's their answer. Yeah, we think there might have been a mix-up. There was a mix-up. Do you reckon they knew at the time and didn't say anything about it? I don't know. Do you think it's only come to light? Because other people have come forward. Or something like, how do you go, yeah, there would have been a mix-up. I have no idea. But this sentence, I think, sums it up in words at a far more articulate than mine. So she's met her biological family. And she said it was like walking into a house you've never been in. But knowing where the lights which are, like I know how to talk to these people.

3:08Did those people have... I mean, I'm asking questions now. You probably don't have the answer. I wonder if they got given a different embryo. Well, I think by the sound of it because her sister that she didn't know was of a biological match, or would say that they got given one of theirs as well. But that's also... So that would have been devastating also for that mum and dad, who had had a daughter the whole time walking around in his world that they didn't even know existed. Yeah. Here's what I would love to know on 131060. So what did you find out on ancestry.com or any of those things? So our producers have said to us in 2024, Monash IVF set out a class action involving over 700 members for defective genetic testing of embryos in the discarding of potentially viable embryos, and that a Brisbane woman discovered she'd given birth to a stranger's baby after being implanted with another couple's embryo in early 2023. It's not IVF, but there was a story out of the States a few years ago

4:10that the family was sitting around a Christmas time, and one of the brothers, I think, got the other siblings in the family, an ancestry.com DNA thing. I was like, hey, let's do this together as a family, and it'll be a bit of fun. And the mum was like, no, no, no, none of you need to do this. Just one of you do it. Let's not waste the money on all of the kids. We'll just get one of you because you'll all have the same thing. And then the mum and the dad went off into the room to chat about something else, and the kids were adults, but then he was writing this blog post saying, like, yeah, now we don't know what mum and dad are fighting about, but we're not sure which one of us is not the sibling. Wow. Oh, my God, this is my family. And did they ever find out? No, I never saw there was no answer in the rest of the story. So... 131060, what did you find out about your family from ancestry.com? Give us a call. We're asking on 131060 what you found out from ancestry.com, or any of the other less famous versions of those. I just really want to point out this is not an ad for them.

5:11Because there was a story that's come out, a woman named Sasha at the age of 30, looked into ancestry.com and found out she was not related biologically at all to her father or mother, and then found out there was an embryo mix up in the IVF process, and basically her mum was given the wrong embryo. Do you think most people that do ancestry.com... All my heritage. Are looking for something that's not quite right? Or do you think a lot of people just do it for fun? Like how often are they just boring positive stories out of ancestry.com? And how often are you finding the thing you've been trying to work out? If I'm being completely honest, I think people use ancestry.com or find my past or 23, and me just to name a few more, because they're looking for a Christmas present for someone. I think the whole thing started. You give that to someone as a gift for Christmas. I think the whole thing started as an... I don't know what to get this person, and it was like a new... Family pre-type thing. Yeah, and it was like, won't this be fascinating?

6:11And yeah. I think... These are always families. At least. Yes. How are you? Good, how are you? Good, what did you find out? Well, first of all, did you go on ancestry.com as we're saying, because there was a hole you were trying to sort of solve? I don't really love it or not at all. Okay. My husband and I just bought it just to find out our proper heritage. Right. And for a bit of fun. And then what happens on sale? I found out I have a half brother in Canada. Oh, wow. So how does that come to be from your mum or dad? From my dad. And he didn't know about it. Less. Because I'm one of four, so he needs a very involved father. Sure. I think I need to... I need to apologize to you, because I laughed then thinking, it's much harder for the mother to hide. And a fear or something, because of the hope, but it could have been before. Exactly. And I'm sorry. I judged too quickly. Okay. So explain what happened. So dad, before he had your kids or during the time of having your kids?

7:12No, before thank God. So mum was totally cool about like the discovery. Totally cool. Yeah. Which he was a bit worried about, because I found out that I called him and told him. And I was like, this has happened. Could it be a possibility? And he was in a bit of a denial. But then I sent him pictures of the guy's name, David. And he looked small like my dad, the main brother's dude. Wow. And was it just a one-off quick thing? Did he remember it? Yeah. It ended up coming... Yeah. It was, yeah, one-off quick thing, but he did. It all lined up with the travels. And with the travels. And did, at the time, was he told by the woman that she was pregnant and going to keep it? No. No, nothing. Right. So I guess like back then it was like the 80s. So there was no real rake for her to find him. Yeah, right. At least, I know you're not qualified to ask this question, but I'm now fascinated. How do they have all our DNA? Like... What's that, sorry? How do they have all of our... Is it only people...

8:12Can you only find people? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But we're also used ancestry.com. You both have to do it. Oh, so I did it. And then a few months later, this guy, like my half-brother, David did it. Oh. And then it came up. Yeah. So why would you just not go on ancestry.com if you had thousands of kids, families that you didn't... You don't remember? Like why? So he went on it to find his dad. So he contacted me, being like, do you have a paternal uncle by the name of Glen? And I was like, oh, gosh. He's a boy. And so have you met up? Yeah, he's come here twice from Canada. Did your dad feel sad that he missed out on his life? I think so. Yeah. A little bit. Yeah. Well, I guess there was out of his control. Yes, yes. Yeah, absolutely. Good on you, Elise. Thank you so much for getting involved. That makes sense. Sorry. Just that makes sense when we're asking whether you're going there because you're trying to fill a hole that you can't solve. So for those people, yes. Yes. The fact that you need to supply your DNA to be involved in the whole process

9:12does make you think most people are going on there for a reason. What? What? But at least... What are you laughing at me out there? Just like, yeah. Yeah. That's... No. But Elise just said it was on sale. Tommy was saying that you did. Yeah. They got it because it was on sale. He was saying a Christmas present. But I think more and more it would be because you think there's something missing and you're trying to work it out. Telling you laugh at the door. Right. Let's find out from Laura. Good day, Laura. Hey, Carrie and Tommy. Hey. Why did you get involved with her? Exactly the same as Elise. So my partner wanted to find his heritage. Yeah. And I said, oh, sure, I'll do one too. And found out that I have a sister that my dad, he's passed. And it was for his first marriage. And his wife left him and we thought she'd gone up to Queensland. We're from Victoria. And yeah, he had another daughter.

10:13Was it an affair type situation? No, they were married first marriage. So when you say she went up to Queensland, she was whatever happened. She was pregnant when she left him and just never told him. Yeah. And then I only found out because I decided to do the kit with my partner. And did you have you caught up hung out? I have. Yeah. She actually, funny thing is she was in Victoria the whole time. She lives only an hour away. And she worked around the corner. So my dad grew up in Altona. And she was a police officer at the Altona police station. The whole time. But your dad never knew this because he'd passed. No. Dad never knew altogether. So he's never, he doesn't know that he died before he found out he had another daughter. Yeah. Oh, it's his only child. Are you close with her now? Yeah, we are. We are. She's amazing. And she looks like my dad. Oh, wow. Yeah. It's amazing. It's so layered, isn't it?

11:14Yeah. It's like, you know, you get these whole pockets of life that you didn't know existed. And I'm sure for every bit that's like, lovely, there's, there is bits that you mentioned. It's coupled with a, a thought of like, oh, but I've missed out on 20 years of, of this. Yeah. Thank you all. Hey, Sam. Sam, are you there? Yeah. Hello. We're good. How are you? Well, hello. Hello, do you know how happy we think you said you've got a few times? Well, yeah, I assume that you're good. Sam, why did you go looking for your ancestry? Yeah. So both my mom and my dad were adopted. And they both passed away when I was young, so I had no answers. So I knew nothing, you know, like when you're at the GP, like you, you haven't found, I didn't know. So I jumped on them, found both my maternal and paternal sides. The paternal side didn't know that my grandmother had a child and put it up for adoption.

12:17So I caused a bit of a family rupture. So yeah, I reached out to my paternal cousin. So was the brother of my grandmother? And he never even knew that his sister was pregnant and had a child. So when you say your parents were both adopted, then and who were you raised by? My grandparents, my dad's grandparents. And so Sam, how did the story develop? Then did you establish close ties? Yeah, with my maternal side very close. They lived in Tadi. So I've been down there and visited them. And then the paternal side wanted absolutely nothing to do with me. I mean, yeah, it's a week.