New Genealogy Programs highlighted at the #RootsTech 2017 Innovator Summit

40 innovative family history programs were submitted to the Innovator Summit competition at RootsTech 2017. Recently 10 Semi-finalists were selected to go forward to the Innovator Showdown at the Conference. Some of the programs that have become "standard" for usage by family historians and genealogists around the world have been featured previously in this challenging competition.

From looking at the list of Semi-finalists, I can say that the competition gets more intense and difficult every year. Some of the programs have entered in previous years and the developers have had time to significantly improve their programs over the past year. Some are newcomers and all of them represent some of the best efforts possible to help improve the offerings of genealogically related programs. Since I served as a judge in the competition a few years ago, the programs have become much more focused and more fully developed. FamilySearch is to be commended for hosting and sponsoring this type of competition. We all benefit from the results.