Archive for December, 2007

More Academics….James F. Searing

Monday, December 31st, 2007

To the best of my knowledge, Professor Searing is currently professor and chair of the Department of History at the University of Illinois at Chicago.  His distinguished Curriculum Vitae can be found at: http://www.uic.edu/depts/hist/Faculty/searing.html  His extensive publications, reviews and papers, primarily about West Aftica, I believe, can also be found with his CV.  Again, as I gather other public references on the internet I will try to add them here.    Dan

Facebook

Monday, December 24th, 2007

Like lots of others I have read about Facebook as a social happening, but Jim Searing’s initial entry and our link to it (see the “About” page) have drawn me in. So I registered and am proceeding slowly in adding “friends’. I want to talk with Jim about his experiences so far, but a basic search turned up 130+ people with the last name of Searing. There may be lots more that I didn’t know how to turn up. They seem to come from all over the world, which is great. I figure a mass friendship invite would freak most of them out, so we will go slowly! And I have seen references to ‘facebook’ like sites for the older folks, so I want to explore that also. These social networking sites seem ideal for alerting people to the Searing blog and encouraging contributions….Dan

Laura Redden Searing (1839 – 1923)

Monday, December 24th, 2007

Any compilation of Searings must include poet and author Laura Redden Searing. Below is a very brief biographical statement taken from the introduction to her collected papers at the University of Missouri, found on the internet at: http://whmc.umsystem.edu/invent/2290.html

“Laura Catherine Redden was born on 9 February 1839 in Somerset County, Maryland. Her family moved to St. Louis, Missouri, when she was a child. At about the age of eleven or twelve, Redden lost her hearing as the result of a bout with spinal meningitis.

She spent a brief time with a family in Pekin, Illinois, before enrolling at the Institute for the Deaf and Dumb in Fulton, Missouri, in 1855. In 1858 she returned to St. Louis and took a job as editor of the St. Louis Presbyterian and also wrote a number of poems and articles that appeared in the St. Louis Republican under the penname Howard Glyndon.

Shortly after the beginning of the Civil War Redden was sent to cover Washington, D.C., for the Republican. In 1862 she published her first book, Notable Men, a collection of biographies of members of Congress. Two years later she published a book of poems, Idylls of Battle. She also composed the words to the song “Belle Missouri” which became the war song for the state. During the war she befriended many political and military figures including General Ulysses S. Grant and Senator George F. Edmunds. “

For a sample of her poetry, see “Disarmed”, from Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). An American Anthology, 1787–1900. at http://www.bartleby.com/248/881.html

Another reference to her work is http://disstud.blogspot.com/2007/02/february-9-laura-redden-searing-1839.html

This is the Disability Studies blog at Temple University. They did a feature on Ms. Searing that pointed out that February 9 (1839) is her birthday. There are also several references to a biography and readings. For you Minnesota Searings, Mark Hill added this information to the blog entry:

“A small town, Glyndon, is named after her pen-name and located in Minnesota, 15 mles east of Fargo, North Dakota. The town had a big celebration in honor of this deaf lady several years ago.”

Mark Hill, Former Fargo resident and Deaf leader.

Update on 7/24/2008   I just realized I missed a most obvious choice for info on Ms Redden..Wikipedia.  So here is the link to the article about her:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Redden_Searing I hope to add additional references, and welcome additional comments and pointers to her work! Dan

Continuing with our academics…

Thursday, December 20th, 2007

Let me introduce Susan E. Searing, whom I believe still:

Manages the Library and InformationScience  departmental library located within the Main Library at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign.   The primary clientele of the LIS Library are the faculty and students of the Graduate School of Library and Information Science, the University Library faculty and staff, and practicing librarians and information professionals in Illinois.  She selects library materials in all formats and manages the collection budget.  Sshe provides reference service and user instruction.  (from her CV)

Her CV can be found at  http://www.library.uiuc.edu/faculty/searing.htm.  Several years ago I exchanged a few emails with Professor Searing when I was just beginning to explore my own family roots and starting my collection of internet notes on Searings.  Although we have not been in contact recently I feel sure she would be helpful in her area of interest, as time permits.    She has an extensive and impressive list of publications and interests.         Dan

Happy Holidays and a Great New Year

Thursday, December 20th, 2007

I would like to take this occasion to wish all members of the extended Searing family a wonderful holiday season and New Year.  I am hoping that during the coming year many of us will meet other Searings and join in celebrating newly discovered relatives.  Please join us in making this wish come true!   Dan Searing

Original documents containing Searing

Monday, December 17th, 2007

Check out ‘footnote.com’, a site I just ran across that is trying to make available a lot of original documents.  I typed in ‘Searing’ and got a LOT of hits..some of which you had to pay for to access (which I did not…at this time anyway).   Genealogy these days certainly is a business, so you can expect a lot of ‘pay as you go’, but it looked like an interesting place to come back and explore….Dan

Academics abound

Sunday, December 16th, 2007

Until I figure out how to index, list or cross-reference these posts, I am just going to add all the names I have come across in searching the web for Searings……Dan

From the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Center for European Studies, and undated pdf found on the web at:

http://www.unc.edu/depts/europe/aboutus/CES-Faculty.pdf

announces

DONALD SEARING
Burton Craige Professor of Political Science, Donald Searing writes on comparative
politics, political psychology, and political elites. He has published articles on these
subjects in The American Political Science Review, British Journal of Political
Science , and most major professional journals in the discipline. He is currently
engaged in three research programs. One concerns the impact of legislative
experience on the political ideologies of politicians. Some of the results are reported
in his book, Westminster ‘s World: Understanding Political Roles (Harvard University
Press). The second program, with Professors Pamela Johnston Conover and Ivor
Crewe, is a study of the civic side of citizenship in the United States and Great
Britain . This work has recently produced articles on citizen identities, conceptions of rights, tolerance,
and political deliberation, which provide the basis for a book in progress, Citizenship in the Age of
Liberalism. The third research program, with Professors Marco Steenbergen and Jurg Steiner, uses
experimental research designs to investigate democratic deliberation in divided societies.

Getting started with Notable Searings

Sunday, December 16th, 2007

What better place to start than with my own great-grandfather:

Searing, Edward 1835 – 1898

Definition: teacher, educator, politician, b. Aurora, N.Y. He attended Cazenovia Seminary in N.Y. and the Univ. of Michigan, and in 1857 moved to Wisconsin, operating various private schools in the state until 1863 when he was called to teach at Milton College, Rock County. He taught at Milton from 1863 to 1873 when he was elected state superintendent of public instruction of the liberal Republican ticket. He was re-elected in 1875, and served from Jan., 1874, to Jan., 1878. During his tenure as state superintendent, Searing also served as ex officio member of the board of regents of the Univ. of Wisconsin, and in this capacity played a prominent role in attempting to secure greater tax funds for educational and university purposes. After leaving the office of state superintendent in 1878, Searing returned to teach at Milton College for one year. In 1879 he accepted the appointment as president of the State Normal School at Mankato, Minn., where he remained until his death. Wis. Mag. Hist., 10; Mist. of Rock Co. (Chicago, 1879); M. Curti and V. Carstensen, Univ. of Wis. (2 vols., Madison, 1949); C. E. Patzer, Public Educ. in Wis. (Madison, 1924); Colls. Mimi. Hist. Soc., 14 (1912).

[Source: Dictionary of Wisconsin biography]

The history of your last name..by Amazon

Thursday, December 13th, 2007

What should show up in my recent email but this offer from Amazon: “As someone who recently purchased a book from Amazon.com, you might be interested in a new series of books that offer fascinating facts about the history of your last name. Find out where people with your last name originated, ships they sailed on when they immigrated to the United States, and where they reside today. Learn about marriage, literacy, military service, and much more for your surname.

These books also make a perfect gift for holidays, birthdays, and family reunions. Surprise your family and friends with the gift of history about their last name.”

A little research showed Amazon is ‘demand publishing’ last name history books as they are ordered.  This reminds me a little of the mailings I used to get for the Searing family crest (do we have one?), or the Searing history books.  Someday it will be fun to order one….but some checking showed the last name history was available for every family name I checked: grandparents, cousins, etc.  Anyone have any experience with these books?  Dan

Basic Searing genealogy information

Thursday, December 13th, 2007

I unintentionally deleted some basic Searing genealogy links when I made this a category instead of a page.  One of the links is Bill Putnam’s excellent contribution to our history: www.billputman.com/Searing.pdf -.  Another source I have had recommended to me is the Long Island Genealogy site, specifically at the Searing surname link:  http://longislandgenealogy.com/searing/ghtindex.htm  Another, that I have NOT explored is ancestors.com, at: http://genforum.genealogy.com/searing/ .  Comments on any of the above are welcome…Dan Searing