Living DNA: My Results

I have always been very interested in my family history and ancestry which is why I've spend many hours on the Ancestry website and Scotlands People to trace my ancestors on both sides of my family. From my own research and from family stories I know that I'm very English (very, very English) with a fair amount of Scottish ancestors on my mums side but that's it in terms of nationality. Quite a few years ago I bought one of the very first DNA ancestry kits you could buy, the National Genographic one from National Geographic and I've also purchased the Ancestry one.

However, I always want to try more, not just to confirm my previous results but DNA testing is a getting more and more accurate so my first results about six years ago will not be as accurate as a test created this year. I was very kindly sent the Living DNA Kit which is one of the newer kits on the market to try out so here's my opinion on the kit, the process and my DNA results.

*Living DNA Kit (£99 + delivery)

Firstly, the price, it's roughly the same and in some cases, a little cheaper than other comparable kits available to buy now. Most kits come in a similar layout with a similar process whereby you provide a DNA sample (either skin cells from the inside of your mouth or a saliva sample) and you post it back to the laboratory then wait for between four to eight weeks for your results to be emailed to you.

The kit itself is simple and the instructions are easy to follow. You receive a cheek swab sample tube which again is very easy to do and it's much nicer than the Ancestry kit in which you have to spit into a tube...that's not very pleasant. Once posted, you can track the status of your test online and as with the Ancestry kit, my results for this one came back much earlier than estimated - my DNA much be very European and quite common!

As you can see from the screenshots of my DNA results on the Living DNA website, I'm very European - 97.8% European which isn't surprising considering my family history and my previous results. What is surprising is the 2.3% Asian although in this context it refers to the Caucasus mountain range which is very southern Russia so I would class it as the boarder between Europe/Russia and Asia. I wouldn't have believed this result if it wasn't for my dads Ancestry DNA result which he received a few months before mine in which his mentioned the Caucasus, Southern Russia and surrounding countries too. I think it's safe to say that I have a couple of Russian ancestors a very long time ago!

One thing I love about the Living DNA kit is how clear the results are! It's very apparent what the percentages and countries or regions are on the website - I really like how the results are presented. I also like how you can change the specificity from global, regional and sub-regional which reveals the broader or more specific areas.

For example, on mine the global results state 'Europe' and Asia', then the regional category contains Great Britain and Ireland (92.8% - I told you I was very British), Europe South (1.7%), Europe North West (1.7%), Europe East (1.5%) and Northwest Caucasus (2.3%). Then lastly for the sub-regional category, mine is split into all of the various regions around the UK that my ancestors are from including some that I knew such as Northwest England (10.5%), Northwest Scotland (10.4%) and Cornwall (3.9%), I know these because of my family history research and family stories. However, there were a few UK regions that I didn't expect or expect to have such a high percentage such as South Yorkshire (27.5%), North Wales (2.3%) and Devon (1.1%).

Within the most specific sub-regional category I also have: Tuscany (1.7%) which I'm very surprised and happy about, Scandinavia (1.7%) which on other tests is much higher at 8% or 16%, Mordovia (1.5%) and lastly, Northwest Caucasus (2.3%).

As well as being able to change the specificity of your results, you can also certainty too so you can go from 'complete' to 'standard' then to 'cautious', the latter are the results/regions they are most certain about so the results will be something like 'Northwest Scotland related ancestry' rather than Northwest Scotland or it will be South Italy related ancestry instead of Tuscany (1.7%) which I like and it's something I haven't seen on any other tests.

Overall, from the easy of navigation on the website to the simplicity of the result and fast turn around to the clear results and fairly similar results to my previous tests, I cannot recommend this DNA kit enough. It's so quick and easy to use, I love how the results are displayed and I like that you can change the specificity and certainty. I think it would make a very unique Christmas gift and I'm thinking about getting one for my grandad as he is very interested in our family history!

Have you bought or completed a DNA test? What do you think of this kit? Are you interested in your ancestry, DNA or family history? 

*gifted