MGC's Irish Expert Retires

August 16, 2010

Maria, our wonderful Irish expert, has retired.  But never fear - she will be coming back to do Irish appointments after a needed time away.  Look for her Irish Expert appointments to continue later this year.  Maria joined the genealogy staff of Mid-Continent Public Library in November 2004.  A native of Dublin, Ireland, she quickly began using her knowledge of Ireland and its records to help researchers find their Irish ancestors.  The one-on-one appointments have always been the favorite part of her job and often led to tears of both the patron and Maria, as they journeyed from the ancestral unknown to the known.  Maria's ended her MCPL career in giving a talk on "Ireland There" with her "Ireland Here" cohort, Suzanne, at the 2010 annual conference of the Missouri State Genealogical Association.  Earlier in 2010, Maria and Suzanne talked about "Ireland Here and There" at the Kansas Library Association's annual conference in Wichita, Kansas.  Maria's departing words were, "Thanks for the memories."