“For several years I’ve been applying my professional skills of data engineering and analytics to my hobby of genealogy in order to gain deeper insights into my ancestry and heritage.“
Margaret O’Brien, company founder
Data Mining DNA Since 2017
Margaret O’Brien first joined an online genealogy website in 2012. Her cousin was building a family tree on Ancestry, and sent her an invitation to review and collaborate. She chipped in occasionally over the next few years.
In 2017, Margaret purchased DNA tests from Ancestry and 23andMe. She also transferred her Ancestry DNA results to FamilyTreeDNA, MyHeritage, and GEDmatch. This sparked a fascination with analysing the rich data from each company using a wide range of tools.
Margaret started the dataminingdna.com blog in 2018 to document insights into how these companies present DNA relatives and ethnicity estimates. The website continues to grow as a collection of tutorials and how-to guides on using the features of the main consumer DNA testing companies.
In 2020, Margaret launched the DataMiningDNA YouTube channel for over-the-shoulder visual walkthroughs and tutorials.
Company History
This website is owned by M.C.O.B. Technology Ltd. We are based in Ireland, and have been in operation as a technology service provider since 2004.
2004 | Company incorporated. | ![]() |
2007 | Funding awarded by Meath Enterprise Board. | ![]() |
2006/2007 | Completion of South East Enterprise Platform Programme | ![]() |
2007/2008 | CORD Funding awarded by Enterprise Ireland | ![]() |