LivingDNA curiosity

[Daltonator86]

Good afternoon
My dad recently did a Test on LivingDNA which wielded some interesting results.
Now for starters, my dad is somewhere between 2/3 and 3/4 English, the vast majority of that being centered in and around the London area; Sussex, Kent, Hampshire (of course as other genetic maps have shown much of eastern England is very genetically homogeneous). The remainder of his ancestry is about 1/8 Irish (Monaghan), 1/8 Scottish (Galloway) & 1/32 Welsh, or at least this is the remainder of his 'known' ancestry. Now, much of the DNA test results appeared somewhat accurate, concerning how LivingDNA groups different areas. He got about 22% Northern Ireland/SW Scotland, which when takes into account how Monaghan is practically in Ulster, how Irish & Western Scottish DNA is quite indistinguishable and his Galloway ancestry, sorta makes sense. This is coupled with the fact he also received about 3% Irish to even it out, all in all adding up to 25%, which seems pretty accurate. However, he did not receive any Welsh (or Devon; one of his 2x great-grandfathers was from Plymouth) for that matter.

Now what is interesting is that our family tree is quite detailed and we have been able to go quite far back, but what remains mysterious is in fact our patrilineal line, or at least we have only been able to go as far back as my 3x; his 2x great-grandfather, who was born in 1817 and died in 1851, a few months before the Census. In short, his birthplace is unknown. Now from all the family research, we have done I will reiterate that my dad's 'known' English ancestry is entirely confined to the south, but he received about 5.7% of the Northumbria cluster, a region that LivingDNA encompasses as south-east Scotland & north-east England. Now it happens to be the case that our surname is Anglo-Scottish, or at least it is commonly found in both countries and of the same meaning. More importantly, 5.7% is awfully close to 6.25%, the approximate percentage that a 2x great grandparent will contribute to one's DNA. I was wondering if his 2x great-grandfather was in fact from this area, or more importantly how accurate LivingDNA truly is in terms of the specifics.

So sorry about this lengthy post, I am just so curious because of all the murky parts of the family tree, our patrilineal line is the most!

[Ruskie]

Percentages are just an estimate. It's probably unwise to take it too literally.

https://support.livingdna.com/hc/en-us/articles/360018380571-How-accurate-are-my-results-

[Daltonator86]

Percentages are just an estimate. It's probably unwise to take it too literally.

https://support.livingdna.com/hc/en-us/articles/360018380571-How-accurate-are-my-results-

Yes and not only that, one ancestor may contribute more than another to your genetic makeup. Aside from that the British Isles are genetically quite indistinguishable on the whole. I just know that LivingDNA has produced 'mixed' results for a lot of individuals and like I said all of the lines in my family tree that I have not been able to trace far it is the paternal side. Our surname is Skinner, which is found in Scotland, but interestingly in the case of England is more southern than northern.

[frostyknight]

He got about 22% Northern Ireland/SW Scotland, which when takes into account how Monaghan is practically in Ulster,

Monaghan is actually in Ulster. There are 9 counties in Ulster, 6 of these make up Northern Ireland and the remaining 3, including Monaghan, are in the Republic of Ireland.

[Daltonator86]

He got about 22% Northern Ireland/SW Scotland, which when takes into account how Monaghan is practically in Ulster,

Monaghan is actually in Ulster. There are 9 counties in Ulster, 6 of these make up Northern Ireland and the remaining 3, including Monaghan, are in the Republic of Ireland.

Ah, of course. LivingDNA likes to make a distinction between Ulster and the rest of Ireland, having the boundary literally on the border line. Although there is so much overlap, it makes sense that Monaghan was probs grouped in with the SW Scottish/Northern Irish cluster. BTW to my ears, the Monaghan accent sounds more similar to the traditional accents we associate with Ulster than say Dublin, but that should be of no surprise if we take into account its proximity. I think Monaghan had a decent bit of Protestant settlement?

[Daltonator86]

Still like I said, it is very important to not sideline surnames!