Friday 31 August 2018

Still waiting for Living DNA Family Networks

Living DNA has not been very forthcoming about when their Family Networks feature will be available for general viewing, but it did move a little closer this week - I was able to opt in to the Family Networks feature.

Family Networks promises to be a very useful,and unique, feature - by providing only your DNA sample, sex and birth date (which does not have to be exact), Living DNA plans to show your DNA matches in an ancestral tree.  The date of birth is required to help separate first cousins from aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews.  The key seems to be having as many close relatives as possible, on both sides of your ancestry, provide DNA samples.  Details of Family Networks in action, can be found by clicking here.

Living DNA offers autosomal DNA testing, but they also (at least until 31 October 2018) accept raw DNA samples from people who have tested at Ancestry, 23andMe, MyHeritage and FamilyTreeDNA.  If a lot of people take advantage of this upload opportunity, Living DNA could quickly become a "go to" site for determining how you relate to other DNA testers.  Perhaps the hardest thing to figure out is how to upload your raw DNA sample to Living DNA, so I have provided a link to get to the right page quickly.


Once you have created an account and uploaded your DNA sample, you need to opt-in to Family Networks.  To do this, click on "View Test" from the "My Tests" option on the home page.

Sunday 5 August 2018

Coming Soon - Living DNA User Matching

Back in November 2017 I uploaded our DNA test results to Living DNA.  The upload was free and came with a promise that by summer 2018, Living DNA would offer matching to other users on their site.

This was exciting, because Living DNA is based in the United Kingdom, and so so will hopefully have more users with UK ancestry.

I checked my Living DNA account yesterday and the message now reads -

Welcome to Living DNA.
Thank you for uploading your DNA file; we’re excited to process your results and provide insights into your DNA.
By uploading your DNA file to Living DNA, you will have the option to participate in our One Family, One World project, as well as Family Networks and your unique ethnicity results.
To say thank you for your support, each uploader from now until October 31st, 2018 will soon be able to choose to see how they match and connect to other Living DNA participants. This feature is rolling out to small groups of users at a time, starting August 8th, 2018.
We hope you enjoy finding, connecting with people all over the world.
David Nicholson & Hannah Morden

Co Founders - Living DNA
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I hope that we will be in one of the first groups to participate in this new service, but regardless, I will report back once I have tried it.

The other date to note in this announcement is that the opportunity for free upload of your DNA test result from another company could expire on 31 October 2018.  So if you have tested at another DNA testing company and have UK ancestry, time is running out to take advantage of this offer.  To participate in this offer -

  • Download your raw DNA data from your account on your DNA testing company's website, and save it to your computer.
  • Join the One Family, One World project on Living DNA, and follow the instructions to upload your raw DNA data.
Good luck!