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. 

A Final Resolution to a 20 Year Old Brickwall/ Or Not?

Church records for Styria, Austria are now online. I never expected to see these records online. I am now able to verify my Bierbauer/Wagner lines.

My family migrated to American from the village of Inzenhof which is in Burgenland Austria. They lived on the border between Austria and Hungary. Their church is now in Hungary, but their village is now in Austria. I was able to trace all the branches of my Kappel/Koppel family back to the late 1700's using the Felsoronok, Hungary church records, except the Bierbauer and Wagner families. My ancestor Maria Bierbauer was born  in 1850, and was said to have been born elsewhere according to her marriage record. Her parents were said to be Joseph Bierbauer and Juliana Wagner.

With this information I set out to find where Maria Bierbauer was born? I thought the record said she was born in Heidenbergen. I wasn't sure what the writing underneath said? At first I thought that was the name of the church. Thinking this village was in Burgenland I checked the names of all the villages at the Burgenland Bunch  genealogy website. I didn't find an exact match, but a Hackerburg sounded like a possibility. After looking at the church film for that village, and not finding any Bierbauer/Wagners I gave up. After gaining more experience reading difficult writing a couple years later I determined the writing underneath the village said Styria, a different province in Austria. Styria neighbors the province of Burgenland. The word next to it may say Austria? 

Now that I knew Heidenburgen was likely in Styria I looked at an Austrian Gazetteer, a place finding aid I learned about from my Irish research. The closest village name I could find was Heiderberg. I found this name in the footnotes on one of the pages. I found the parish for that area, but their records weren't online. I decided to write the Catholic archives in Graz, Styria, Austria. I decided to just ask for the marriage record for her parents Joseph Bierbauer and Maria Wagner. I received an email transcription of their marriage record. They were married 3 Feb 1850 in Ilz, Styria, Austria. Their daughter was said to have been born about 1850 according to her age on the marriage record. I didn't mention Heiderberg when I requested the marriage record, I just named the Parish as Ilz. I was excited to see what the transcription of the marriage record said. 

24-year-old Juliana Wagner, marital daughter of Josef Wagner, (Bergler u Webermeister z u Klim, parish Sinabelkirchen) and the Barbara geb. Schober (deceased), lives in Heiderberg, community Hochenegg 49.

This seemed to be confirmation that I had the right place, and right couple, because Juliana was from Heiderberg. I wanted a copy of the actual record plus more documentation. I was told that anymore research would cost 50 euros per hour. That was not affordable for me at that time. That was in 2003. A couple weeks ago I learned Sytrian Church record books were now online. I immediately began researching these books even though it was late at night, and I needed to get up early.

Dr. Norbert Allmer's 2003 marriage transcript came in handy. I would never guess the name in the record I found was Bierbauer. The transcript was key to finding the record. I highlighted Josef Bierbauer's name below. The German script B looked like a C to me. The name also has the ending -in. This ending is typical of surnames in these records. 

Wagner and Heidenberg were difficult for me to read in the marriage record portion about Juliana. Actually everything in her entry was indecipherable, because of the unique German Script writing. I needed the transcript.    

I was now able to look for my ancestor Maria Bierbauer's birth record. Now knowing what Bierbauer written in script looked like it would be easier for me to find that record. I found a Maria Bierbauer born 1851 to a Joseph Bierbauer and Juliana, and what could be Wagner?, and what appeared to be Heiderberg?. I was excited until I saw the cross over her name. From my earlier research in Felsoronok records I knew this meant she had died. If she died much later in Inzenhof I would not expect a notation like this. Looking more closely it gave her date of death as 31 March 1862. She couldn't be my ancestor if this was correct.  

I checked the death record book to see if she really did die in 1862; if she did maybe there are some coincidences and these aren't my ancestors?  

Yes, after finding Maria's death record it confirmed she did die in 1862, at age 12, on the date written on her birth record. Catching on somewhat to the German script now the village didn't look like Heiderberg. 

Going back to her birth record I noticed there is a note stating she was made legitimate by the marriage of her parents in June of 1851. My Joseph Bierbauer and Juliana Wagner married in February of 1850. I was not seeing any Maria's born to this couple after their marriage so I checked before their marriage. I hit the correct Maria this time because a note stated that she was made legitimate by her parents February 1850 marriage, and this Maria was indeed born in Heiderberg. Her mother's surname was indeed Wagner. 

I wanted to make sure that there was another Joseph Bierbauer who married a Juliana in June 1851. I did find such a couple. Below is the marriage record for Joseph Bierbauer who coincidentally also married a Juliana, and had a daughter Maria, all around the same time as my ancestors married and had a daughter Maria. 

My unfamiliarity with these different handwriting styles initially tripped me up misreading Maria Bierbauer's marriage record and her birth entry. If the other Maria hadn't died I would have recorded the information for the wrong person. That was a bit of a scare thinking I might have to start my search for Maria's family elsewhere again. 

Being a beginner reading German Script I will need to proceed more slowly and carefully. 

I'm now tracing these families farther back. I found Joseph Wagner's birth record. According to his birth record his father, also named Joseph, was a Leinweber or Linen weaver. According to Juliana Wagner's marriage record her father Joseph was a Webermeister, or master weaver. So weaving was a family trade. 

This is what I had for Maria Bierbauer's family before using the Austrian church records. 

This is what I have two weeks after reviewing records online:

I couldn't have added the additional surnames without the help of the Facebook group "German Genealogy Records Transcription."I can make out first names but many surnames are still Greek to me. 

I'm visiting Austria in a few weeks and I was planning on visiting the archives to do research. I was looking for the archives address when I found these records online. Now I realize I wouldn't have been able to read the records in the archives. The German script takes getting used to. Now I don't need to take time away from sightseeing. It will take me some time to continue to learn how to read German script so I can trace more lines back. I will be inching my way back.