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
Susan Searing and I have e-mailed each other on and off over the years (as students would e-mail her instead of me about class questions). Stan and Barb came and met her for lunch, and somewhere there’s a picture. They look enough alike to be brother and sister.
Thanks for the kind words about my professional accomplishments! I love my work as an academic librarian. Unfortunately (for the Searing family history enthusiasts) my taste for genealogy was permenently soured by my first job out of library school, as a reference librarian at Yale. Because Yale Library was known for its excellent collection in American history, we’d frequently get long letters from amateur genealogists, asking us to fill in the blanks of their family trees. A huge job, and one we couldn’t do for them. So I’m not that interested myself in digging around in the past of the Searing clan, but I’m very curious to connect with others with the same last name, as in my experience it’s pretty rare. Champaign-Urbana is the first place I’ve lived as an adult where there was another Searing in the phone book!
Welcome,Sue and thanks for the comments! We promise we will not ask you to fill in our blanks! My own ‘put down’ was in my teens when I evidenced interest in Searing family history….my Mom (Margaret Woodson Searing, formerly a journalist in Waukegan, IL, now deceased) said, ‘that’s something old men do’….and…she was right..:) But this blog is not just about genealogy, and we hope to offer more than a family tree…Dan
My wife’s name is Susan so here is to another Susan Searing! Susan is the HR Manager for the large ALCAN Packaging plant in Neenah, Wisconsin. My daughter Emily, a graduate of the University of Wisconsin, I believe commented that she had talked with Susan the librarian when she was at Wisconsin. Emily also commented that there is a plaque in memory of Edward Searing at UW recognizing his efforts in the mid 1800’s when he was State Supt of Ed. There is also a room named for him at Minnesota State in Mankato, where he had been president. Rick