How do I interpret my family ancestry results?

Please note that this video was captured before our recent portal re-design, so although the information about your results is still valuable, your portal will not look like this.

Your autosomal results are what we call your family ancestry. 

You inherited these pieces of DNA from both your mother and father. Therefore your autosomal DNA is passed down from all your ancestors, and the combination makes up your basic genetic code.

The typical Living DNA results provide you with your genetic ancestry going back approximately 10 generations. Your test gives you a clear percentage breakdown across the population groups that your genetic code has been compared against. The resulting percentages answer the question "Which populations in the world is my [autosomal] DNA most similar to?" We are able to establish the percentage similarity of your DNA to the population samples available in our reference dataset, and we’ve built Living DNA to report on your autosomal ancestry breakdowns up to 80 worldwide areas and counting.

Your family ancestry results also include a 'back in time' map-- what you call your ancestry will depend on what point in history you are looking at. This map is designed to show a geographical location and the concentration of our common ancestors' descendants from that point in history.

As with any DNA test, there are limitations. Please note that at this stage, we are not able to tell you which parts of your family ancestry come from your mother's side or your father's side, nor which parts come from a certain generation.

When you test with us your online profile receives free ongoing upgrades in the ancestry platform. In the future, if, we are able to provide finer detail within our existing regions, or we can offer additional features in the ancestry platform, your online results will be updated automatically (not applicable to printed results).