Comparing Living DNA Results to the Others

I received my Living DNA results yesterday. My impression so far matches the opinions of others who have tested with Living DNA. It really shines when it comes to British Isles ancestry. They have pointed to North West Scotland as the source of much of my British Isles ancestry, and that would most likely be correct. The 14% Scottish they estimate is about right. They also found some Cornish admixture, which one of the admix calculators at GEDmatch also came up with. They also came up with trace amounts of admix from other regions of England. I was curious about whether they would come up with any English admixture. I've visited England a couple of times and wondered if I had any ancestors from there. I'm hoping they are right that I do have some English ethnicity.

One of my Great-Great Grandfather's was French Canadian. Living DNA gave me 5% French, which is about right. 23andMe combines French and German, and the other companies don't give me any French estimates, so I can't compare this estimate with any others. 

My Great-Great Grandmother Mary E. Owens is thought to have some Welsh ancestry. The surname Owens is associated with Wales. Living DNA gives me one result for South Wales and one for South Border Wales. The other companies haven't separated out Wales from other results.

I'm skeptical of the 2% Pashtun result and the Mordovian? I don't know, but I haven't found anyone from those areas on my tree so far. None of the other companies have that estimate for me. 

Living DNA points to Northern Ireland as the source of my Irish. I do have some Northern Irish roots. My Irish Great-Grandmother was from Galway Ireland, however. Living DNA didn't show the Irish Republic as a sub-region. 

Living DNA was right in line with the other companies as far as my Native American estimate at 5%. They also estimated around 1.5% West African, which is right on tract with the other companies.

Below I compare my Living DNA results with other companies.

British Isles/ Ireland

My maternal grandfather Charles Forgey was substantially Scots-Irish. He would represent a quarter of my ancestry. On my father's side I have just a trace of British Isles ancestry. One of my great-grandmother's was Irish from Galway, which would amount to the highest British/Irish on my father's side . I would say my British Isles/ Irish should be no more than half of my ancestry, considering one of my grandmother's was Nicaraguan, and another grandfather was Eastern European from Austria. The 68% Living DNA wouldn't be correct.

Living DNA

Living DNA

AncestryDNA

AncestryDNA 60% total for Irish Great Britain

23andMe

23andMe 44%

MyHeritage

MyHeritage

FamilyTreeDNA 

FamilyTreeDNA

Eastern Europe

My grandfather Rudolph Kapple/Kappel was born in Austria. I've traced his family in Eastern Europe back around 300 years. The Living DNA estimate of 4.8%  Eastern European would be too low. If they had also estimated some German ethnicity, in edition to that estimate, Living DNA's Eastern European would be more accurate.

Living DNA

AncestryDNA

23andMe

MyHeritage

FamilyTreeDNA

DNA.Land

Iberian/Southern European

My grandmother Graciela Del Castillo was born in the Central American country of Nicaragua. Her ancestors had Spanish surnames such as Del Castillo, Garcia, Granizo, Alvarado, and Lacayo etc. Since I received around a quarter of my DNA from her I would have expected around 15% to 20% Iberian admixture, considering there is Native American and African admixture which would need to be taken into account too. 

Living DNA

AncestryDNA

23andMe

MyHeritage 

Familytree DNA

No Iberian

DNA.Land

The Living DNA British Isles estimate is over estimated at 68%. It would definitely be under 50%, maybe around 40%. I know for certain my Nicaraguan grandmother didn't have British Isles ancestry, nor my Austrian grandfather. That would eliminate around 50% from British Isles consideration. Most companies are overestimating British Isles ancestry and underestimating less common admixtures. 23andMe is the best with the 44% British Isles/ Irish estimate.

All of the companies have difficulty detecting Iberian and Eastern European. Again 23andMe is best. Some of my Eastern European ancestors were German. Combining 23andMe's French and German estimates with Eastern European would represent my Austrian grandfather's heritage percentage wise. The Iberian estimate at 23andMe would be more in line with my Nicaraguan grandmother's heritage.

Hopefully with more people testing from more places the Living DNA ethnicity results will become more accurate.

I'm looking forward to getting matches with Living DNA once they begin introducing matching sometime this year. As I understand it they will have a chromosome browser, which will help me collect more segments for my segment map.

You can upload your raw data from other companies to Living DNA for free and receive matches once this service is introduced. Living DNA's "One Family One World" project sounds like a great project to contribute your raw data to.