Archive for the ‘Administrative’ Category

Searings on Social Media

Thursday, December 10th, 2009

Just a quick update.  Twitter remains a rich resource for Searings.  Matthew Searing, a high school teacher in New York goes by the handle ‘haikusearing’ and in his spare time he is posting some haikus that are very entertaining.  And Jim Searing is now posting as ‘TreeStrategist” working with his post career vocation and education in landscape architecture.  More on that as I get an update from Jim.  If you go to  Find People and search for Searings you won’t be disappointed, but they won’t overwhelm your follow box either.  But its fun to see what other Searings are posting about.And Facebook’s My Last Name is Searing Group is also gaining new members almost daily.  We are working on a name to be more inclusive as there are lots of Searing relations or Searing branches who might not have that last name.  We want to make it clear that all are welcome.  And a new group, Mankato Memories has launched.  This is important because Edward Searing was the president when it was the Normal School…..long before it was incorporated into the state university system.  If you search for his name in the blog an article on him should come up.  And I continue to look for other Searings who accomplished deeds or words we want to share!  Send’em on!!

Two Years Old

Monday, November 30th, 2009

The blog is two years old.  We launched in November, 2007.  There have been some ups.. notably meeting some wonderful ‘Searings’ who contacted me through the blog.  I would be very remiss if I didn’t specifically mention Laura Davenport, who took me under her genealogical wing and guided me through some very basic questions, and who built my own tree on Ancestry.  She continues to provide valuable advice almost daily.  I have recently joined Ancestry and again her guidance and advice have been most helpful.   I literally would not have been able to know as much about the whole Searing Family without her help.   And there have been others…you know who you are!  One day I will get permission to list these folks who are willing as advisors who can be contacted through the blog.Other ups have been the increasing number of Searing family contacts on Facebook and Twitter.  Although people make fun of the ‘social media’ I think they represent an important way to stay in contact with other family members.  We also have quite a bit of traffic in our monthly reports, most of which I attribute to Google and other indexing bots…but some has to be Searings checking out the blog….The downs I take fully upon myself.  I have let entries pile up…projects go stale..ideas die on the vine.  But hey, its a blog, my blog, so I can be responsible for it or not.  I hope to be more responsible in the third year….:) .  I still think a lot of the subcategories are valid in illuminating Searing accomplishments, although clearly these are individual achievements…there is obviously nothing magical about the name…except we ‘share’ it or it is in our genealogical background.This coming year I would like to see more entries, more often, find a way of adding pictures and web links, fill out some of the subcategories, complete the ‘census’, and perhaps add a category on Searing family web site references .  I would like to find more Searing bloggers to cross link.  I would also like to use my Ancestry membership to make my work on developing family trees more transparent.  And..sticking my neck out…I would like to launch a Searing Family web site using The Next Generation software of which I am a proud owner but haven’t done a thing with!OK, ’nuff said for now.  Comments, suggestions, criticism, ideas…all welcome.  I’m always excited when a ‘Searing’ ‘checks-in’ through the blog…means someone besides myself is reading it!  I am looking forward to a third year.

Searing Family T-Shirt

Tuesday, November 17th, 2009

All Searings: Rick Searing, at RSearing@portageps.org, a high school teacher in Portage MI is selling Breadlift T’s as a fund raiser..on the back in the list of donors it says “The Searing Family”…the school Senate is asking $10.00 a shirt…seems like a good deal for a Searing family related ‘signed’ item…:) If you are interested, contact Rick.   Get’em while they last..they may already be out of XXL’s.      Any other Searing related items? Send them to me through the blog and I will be happy to post them!   Dan

Looking For Searings II

Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009

Last April 2009 (see below) I wrote that there were 30 some Searings on Twitter….I’m happy to report that I just counted 80 +…obviously some are more active than others..:).  but it shows an interest in this brand of social media.   Twitter is still working on a ‘group’ function.  There is a ‘My Last Name is Searing’ group on Facebook….where a search for Searings will show over 500 rough ‘hits’.  There are 53 Searing wish lists on Amazon.  If there are other sites to aggregate Searing names, please let me know.  Anyway, obviously you can see the Twitter Searing list just by searching for ‘searing’, but if you want a copy of the Twitter names, I copied/pasted the list as of today (9-21-09)  I have a Google Docs copy I can send you.      Contact me through the blog, or at dansr@searingfamily.com           Dan

Catching Up

Friday, September 4th, 2009

Summers over.  Time to catch up with the blog.  Not a lot has happened..we’ve had a few Searings on eBay, some have shown up on various internet Google Alerts, some genealogy events have arisen, and most gratifying to me….some folks have sent me material to post on the blog.  Twitter Searings continue to grow, and there are even more Searings on Facebook, although the Searing group, My Last Name is Searing, continues to need some support!  So keep checking out and submitting the news.  I continue to look forward to Searings ‘checking in’!  See the About page for my email address.

The Case of the Missing Presidents

Wednesday, May 20th, 2009

Great fun tonight.  Kovels Komments for May 20, 2009, (an ezine published by Ralph and Terry Kovel on antiques and collectibles) ran a piece on the missing head of a statute of President James Garfield on the Hiram College campus.  This reminded me of a family story about Edward Searing.  I posted a comment on the Kovel’s blog about my family story.  The comment is below.   “James is not the only missing former college president. Relatives have long searched for the bust of Edward Searing, President of the then Mankato Normal School (now part of the Univ of MN system)from 1880 to 1898. The bust was reportedly stolen from the campus decades ago, and was never recovered. A reward for its safe return or purchase with no questions asked could be arranged by contacting me through the blog.searingfamily.com.” For years my Aunt Bea asked me to recover poor Edward.  There was a sighting in an antique shop in South Carolina, but nothing came of it.  It still would be fun to find it! 

Facebook Searings

Friday, May 8th, 2009

More Searings are showing up on Twitter, but there are also many, many more on Facebook.  A quick search said there were 500 listings for Searing.  Having searched some of these, its obvious some are duplicates, some are nick names, and there is one group, My Last Name is Searing.  It has held steady at about 37 members.  Jim Searing, the founder, said he didn’t have much luck recruting.  I think I will start sending out friend messages in hopes of rounding up a few more of our kin.  I noticed there was also a MOYER group, with over 70 names.  That is also a family name of mine, as my brother’s middle name is Moyer, but its a maternal connection.  Any suggestions on Facebook recruiting?  Send them in!          Dan

Looking for Searings

Friday, April 17th, 2009

In all the right places.  There are 30 Searings on Twitter (including myself).  I have tried to ‘follow’ them all, but two are ‘pending’  (I think meaning they have to approve of me).  I laughed at Twitter at first, thinking it was just a place to list what you had for breakfast (and other things!).  But I kept reading about it and decided to try it just to form my own opinion…(a novel idea in the social network age, I know…:).  And, thousands if not millions of us must have thought the same thing, as its ‘members’ are exploding.  I have found some interesting topics and people and issues to follow, and been followed by a few obviously national advertising types…but also by friends, family, and other Searings.  It is still fun to make contact with other people of the same name, to see what they are doing, what they are thinking, and what their lives are like.  I did start a Searing Twitter group, but it isn’t very active….maybe I can rejuvinate it now that we have 30 Searings who are tweeting (that still sounds hokey!)  But that is a topic for another posting.  Hey, if you aren’t on Twitter yet, give it a try….Dan

Making Entries

Monday, April 6th, 2009

Tonight I finally posted the Searings on the Internet – January 2009.  Only two more months to get caught up in this category.  My methodology is to set up a Google Alert for as many permutations for ‘Searing’ as I can think of, as in: Searing family, Searing author, Searing funeral.  And let it bring internet entries to me.  I’m not sure how well the Alerts work, but it will find my blog entries within a day or two of my entries.  Very few of the ‘finds’ are about Searings…most are deleted by me because they are about searing as an adjective or noun (once I got enough entries for my Searing as a Part of Speech page..see the Pages list).  Then I research the entries, checking the sites, finding the date and reporter if its from a paper and edit the text, trying to provide enough information so a reader can find the entry on the internet.  I write or place the text in a Google Doc, and copy it to the blog space.  I’m certainly not adept at entering/editing text!  But it seems to work.  Why?  Because I like to see what Searings are up to, and I am still amazed at the power of the internet to provide a wellspring of information about our family members.     Dan

A Real Blog?

Saturday, April 4th, 2009

Time flies…but we all know that. In many ways that is the human condition.  Is that why some of us like genealogy?  To extend our reach?  Tonight I was browsing ‘my’ Searing family tree on ancestry.com and marveling that Searings have been kicking around since at least the 1500’s.  I say ‘my’ because all the work on the tree has been done and generously shared by Laura Davenport.  If you want access, write me and I’ll ask her.  She saved me literally years of work.   Also tonight, looking at the blog and my limited recent entries, I’m going to change directions a bit.  Instead of infrequent ‘Blogging the Blog’ entries by me, I going to try a regular blog…making more frequent entries about what I’m trying to add value to what I still hope will be a Web based touchstone for Searings.  Please check back!    Dan