Where Do You Come From?

EMILY DIAMOND discovers her personal origins with an ancestry kit from Somerset business Living DNA.

- Emily Diamond

HOW much about your genetic history are you aware of? How far back does your family tree go? Up until recently, I barely knew about the origins of my great grandparents let alone my whole genetic past.

Now, thanks to Frome-based ancestry business Living DNA – who’ve worked in close collaboration with some of the world’s top genetic scientists and academics from the Universities of Bristol, Oxford, Bath, Sydney and University College London to develop its new ancestry kit – everyone is able to explore their ethnic background across 80 worldwide population groups, including 21 regions in the UK.

Living DNA is the first company in the world to offer a personalised DNA service to enable the public to view their British ancestry and discover how their worldwide ancestry has evolved over time, dating back to approximately 60,000 to 80,000 years ago. According to Living DNA, this ancestry kit is the first of its kind to link in with significant academic research to give the results meaningful context and allow people to gather an accurate understanding of their genealogy.