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Gregath Speakers
  
2010
Event
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Mary Celeste, MLS

Mid-Continent Public
Library Branch Manager, Retired
National Speaker and educator
Kansas City, Missouri
Biography
Web Information
Session Information

Biography
Mary Celeste retired from Mid-Continent Public
Library in May of 2007 after twenty years of service there, most
recently as the Branch Manager of the Boardwalk Branch (Platte Co,
Missouri). She holds an MLIS (Masters Degree in Library and Information
Science) from the University of Missouri/Columbia. Her BA is in
education and she is a former elementary teacher, with many years of
experience in volunteering with youth programs.
Mary currently serves as:
registrar for two local lineage society chapters; Chair of the
Missouri State Genealogical Association’s "First Families" Program;
past member, American Library Association’s Local History (chair) and
Genealogy Committees; past president, Northland Genealogy Society;
member recruitment chair, Heartland Chapter, Association of
Professional Genealogists; member, Genealogical Speakers Guild, and
numerous genealogical and historical societies. She is chair of the
History, Education, and Archives Committee for the Banneker School
Restoration Foundation, organized as an effort to restore a segregated
elementary school built in 1885 in Parkville, Missouri and to create
an opportunity for visitors to learn about segregated education in the
American South. She served as a member, National Genealogy Society’s
2008 Conference Local Arrangements Committee and co-chair, Local
Events Committee. She is an active advocate for passing our passion
for heritage on to our youngsters, and currently serves as a Genealogy
and American Heritage Merit Badge Counselor for the area Boy Scouts
and has led an intergenerational family history group project for the
local 4-H. She is a 2003 alumna of the National Institute for
Genealogical Research at the National Archives in Washington , D.C.
She presented at the National Genealogical Society’s annual conference
in May 2008 and the Federation of Genealogical Society’s “Librarians
Day” in August of 2006, as well as numerous other state and local
venues.
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Web Information
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Session Information:
Hats Off to Our
Ancestors!: A Light-Hearted Salute to Lineage Societies
In this
presentation, the speaker uses a variety of hats to pay tongue-in-cheek
tribute to our ancestors and the lineage societies they inspired. The
program is organized in rough chronological order of the development of
the United States. Societies are grouped by nobility, colonial,
patriotic, pioneer, witchcraft, "saintly", etc. Participants should plan
to be entertained and enlightened, but will be disappointed if they are
expecting a scholarly presentation.
The speaker has
compiled a list of hundreds of societies, certificate programs (more
commonly known as "first families"), and lineage research projects.
While not intending to publish this list at this point, the speaker will
be happy to provide participants with an electronic response outlining
possible societies which correspond to locations or events in which
their ancestors participated.
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Hanging
Out the Dirty Linens – Learning to Love Your
Less-Than-Perfect Ancestor
If your “family history” consists of
names, dates, and places only, you may have missed out on really getting
to know some interesting characters. This presentation is meant to
inspire you to roll up your sleeves, dust off your resources, call your
cousins, and get back in the research mode. Don’t be disappointed if
your ancestors weren’t all as ideal as you had imagined - it’s a lot
more fun to find “colorful” ancestors, and I expect you’ll find many
whose lives, if not famous, were at least remarkable.
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Making Plans for
a Successful Genealogy Research Trip
Weeks and months before you hit the
road for that long-anticipated genealogy research trip, you've got a lot
of preparations to make to insure that you will have a successful
experience. This program gives you tips and tricks so that you'll
arrive bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and ready to work, with no regrets
for the essential tools you left behind. Whether you plan to go alone
or with a group, on a plane, on a train, or in a car, and to a major
family-history mecca or the little town where your great-grandfather
was born, you'll have everything you need to grow your family tree.
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