FGS 2014 Awards: The Inaugural Technology Advances Award Recipient

The Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS) presents awards for excellence in a variety of areas related to genealogy and history. At the recent FGS conference in San Antonio, Texas, an array of awards were presented and accompanied by a Power Point presentation extolling the reasons for the awards. Over the next several weeks, watch this blog for postings about the specific individuals and organizations who were the recipients.

FGS was pleased to present its inaugural Technology Advances Award to GEDmatch.com in recognition of an innovative product that enhances the genetic genealogy experience. GEDmatch is a free website that allows us many ways to compare and analyze our autosomal DNA results from different companies and ​with that of fellow DNA testers. There are other components of the website that do require a small fee but the basic comparisons may be done at no charge.

Curtis Rogers and John Olson, the Co-Administrators of GEDmatch, acknowledged the award with these words:

“We are thrilled, and humbled by this award from an organization so long established and recognized as the Federation of Genealogical Societies.  It is an indication to us that our efforts are achieving some success in reaching our goal of helping family history seekers by providing useful genealogical tools. It is all about people.”

They further said “we know that our volunteers, while few in number, will be equally honored and encouraged to continue improving GEDmatch. Please thank your Awards Committee and membership for this strong endorsement of our activities.”

If you or your genealogical or historical organization is interested in nominating a person or project for an award, please visit FGS Awards.

Awards will be presented at various times during 2015 but if you are interested in a nomination for an award to be presented at the next FGS conference, the deadline is 1 January 2015. Full details and a nomination form are on the FGS website. The next conference will be held 11-14 February 2015 in Salt Lake City in conjunction with RootsTech. Details are on the FGS website and everyone is welcome!