I took a test with LivingDNA and their ethnicity gave UK and Ireland 89.7%, with North West England 34% and South Wales 24.3%, which seems right as my family is English/Welsh. What did not make sense was North West Scotland 1.8%. There are very few in my present family, so the results were not surprising. My closest relative was a 2nd-4th cousin and then 3rd-5th downwards. But I do have Asia South Pashtun 8.6% and Africa Nilotic People 1.6%. Pashtun is the Iran area and Nilotic People are from halfway down Africa on the West side. I am looking for my Welsh great-great-grandfather; a Williams from West Wales. It is like looking for the needle in a haystack, but I doubt that spreads to Asia or Africa. Initially, I dismissed the ethnicity breakdown as having no relevance.
A while later, I uploaded my Autosomal to Gedmatch. It offered me a very different set of matches and none from the LivingDNA list. One was much closer than the others, so I made contact. It established the North West Scotland link, as descendants were living in Wales from around 1750. That was from a much smaller percentage than Asia South Pashtun 8.6%.
Within the LivingDNA list, there are English and Welsh sounding surnames, but also anonymised people that are of little use. From the GEDmatch list, there are no Welsh sounding names and many seem to be in America, which really does not make any sense, but they may be very distant relatives, as the Scottish line goes back to 1750. I still have not found my great-great-grandfather.
Was the DNA test worth doing? As a sole searcher, even with DNA it is very difficult. For those with large families, taking several tests to cross-check, the results and accuracy may be better. I am pleased I took the test, as it offered me more than I expected.
