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According to the ICO, this included access to personal data belonging to 155,592 UK residents, such as names, year of birth, geographical information, profile images, race, ethnicity, health reports and family trees.

"It has helped us revise the tyrannosaur family tree and rewrite what we know about the evolution of tyrannosaurs," she added.

That boy had the same relatively unusual surname that appeared on the mystery branch of the family tree, a link later confirmed by birth certificates obtained by Matthew.

Hackers gained access to family trees, birth years and geographic locations, by using customers' old passwords, but the company maintains the data stolen did not include DNA records.

After taking that DNA test almost a decade ago, the genealogy company entered her data into its vast family tree, allowing other users to make contact with their genetic relatives – close or distant.