Discovering my ancestry with Living DNA

Have you ever thought about researching your family history?

My husband has looked into my family before and built up a nice picture of my family tree thanks to a fair bit of online research.  I’ve often wondered where my family line originates from though, so I was really interested when I was offered the chance to explore my ancestry with Living DNA.

The way they work is by analysing a DNA sample that you provide them with, to find out where in the world you originally came from.

The Living DNA kit is really simple to use.

It comes nicely presented in a little white box with a really handy information sheet that breaks down exactly what you need to do into nice, simple steps.

I was a bit worried about somehow getting it wrong and messing up my results, but the detailed instructions helped me feel better about doing it properly.

The main part of the kit is the swab which comes in a sealed tube and looks like something you would expect a medical professional to use.

You unscrew the tube and rub the swab on the inside of your cheek to collect your DNA sample.  Then pop it  back in the tube, attach a few personalised labels then send it off to Living DNA to be analysed.

Once your sample has been received and analysed you get an email from Living DNA letting you know your results are ready.

Then you just need to log in to your account and all your information is there waiting for you to explore.

This was the part I was waiting for, and it was really interesting to dig in and find out a bit more about my ancestry.

I know a bit about my family history thanks to research that my husband has done in the past, so it didn’t come as a big surprise to be told that my family ancestry is 100% Great Britain and Ireland.

The way Living DNA work out their results means you get to see where your ancestors were from going back 10 generations.

In my case, it seems like my family were quite spread out, although they seem to be from the South more than anywhere else.  What did surprise me a bit is the 10.2% from Northwest Scotland, I’m not sure who in the family was from there.

The Living DNA results also showed me my motherline which I really like.

The website explains that, “your motherline is your direct maternal heritage, passed down from a mother to their child through the mitochondrial DNA.  Mitochondrial DNA allows you to trace back up your direct maternal line until the point around 200, 000 years ago when there appears to be a common mtDNA signature”

My results show that my DNA belongs to haplogroup T1a, which arose from a woman around 17, 000 years ago in the east of the Mediterranean.  Pretty interesting to think about the fact that I share this common ancestor with everyone else in this particular group.

If you’re a male tracing your ancestry with Living DNA then you’ll get fatherline results, which looks at your Y-DNA to explore your paternal ancestry.

I was really impressed with the service from Living DNA.

The pack that you get sent is really well presented and has all the information you need to provide a good sample.  I felt like I was really walked through the process, helping me feel more confident that I was doing it right.

It took a good few weeks for my results to be received and analysed, which is what I would expect from a service like this.

The information about my DNA and my ancestry is detailed enough for what I wanted to know, and I’m impressed with the way it’s presented on the website.  There are quite a few areas to explore that tell you more and more about your ancestry and the migration of people from the haplogroup that you belong to.

The DNA ancestry test costs £99 (plus delivery) and if you’re interested in finding out about your ancestry and tracing back your roots then I think it could definitely be worth looking in to.

For more information and to order your own kit you can visit the Living DNA website.

Disclaimer: I was gifted a DNA sample kit for the purpose of this post but all words, opinions and photos are my own.