“We used to make things in the USA.” How often have we seen that thought. Of course we still do..but different things. I like to think about ‘things’ Searings made (and still make.) I like to return them to the family where possible. What did Searings make? J Searing made wood planes (see note elsewhere in the blog) in the 1800’s in NJ. They come available occasionally. Searing’s Gallery in Brooklyn made photographs. So did Searing and Hunt in Plainfield, NJ; Carrell & Searing made hats, caps and furs in Morristown NJ (J. Walter Searing). There was a Searing printing firm. More recently Burge Searing made musical instruments (see note elsewhere in the blog). Dennis Searing still makes world class pool cues. Searing Industries (see page on businesses) makes pipe as I recall. Searings also write books and paint. (See Searing Artists elsewhere.) I am sure there are more examples. And don’t forget variations on the Searing name when thinking about stuff we made. Send them to me for posting. When you see these items, let’s get them back in the family, if possible.
Author Archive
Searings Making Things
Saturday, January 9th, 2010Meeting Cousins
Saturday, January 9th, 2010On January 6, 2010 I had the pleasure once again of meeting my 4th cousin, Jim Searing and his wife Gayle. This was our second meeting and hopefully we’ll have many more. We email and Facebook often. We met through eBay, as I try to ask buyers of “Searing’ things if they are Searings. We share a g-g-g-grandfather, so I hope I have counted right. One of the great things about the internet (hopefully) is that you can actually find and contact distant relatives. If you are planning on coming to the Washington DC area, give me a note if you are interested in meeting up. Obviously we meet members of our own families, but it’s a lot of fun to make contact with other ‘family’ members. If you do so, send me the details and I will be happy to post them.
First Searing Obit of 2010
Monday, January 4th, 2010
William Searing of Monroe Township NJ died Jan 1, 2010. (From the Trenton Times, Jan 3, 2010)
Searing Obits 2009
Monday, January 4th, 2010
We lost a number of Searings in 2009. These names and dates are taken from available obits on the internet. I have limited details on most of them if anyone is interested. Any errors or omissions are mine only. If I have left out someone, please contact me. March 5, 2009, Bobby A. Searing, IN; Mary E. Searing, April 20; Donna K. Searing, July 29, IN; Sarah Louise Searing, Sept 29, CA; Mary Mosella Searing Cullen, Oct 4, NY; David A. Searing, Oct 9, LA; Eddie Searing, Dec 1, MO; Freda Mae Searing, Dec 2, IN;
Happy New Year
Saturday, January 2nd, 2010To all our extended and diverse Searing family, including all the spelling variations we are learning about, and to all the Searing women who by taking the name of their husbands lose or gain the Searing name. I know my goal and Jim Searing’s as well, as founder of My Last Name is Searing group on Facebook, is to be as inclusive as possible. The start of 2010 is a good time to launch a new section devoted to my own (and others through comments) personal observations and musings on the Searing family and its genealogy (past) and accomplishments (present). My aim is to be more personal without being tiresome or egotistical. I would like to add some ‘extra’ to the recognition inherent in the lists and historical finds. My ‘rep’ since grade school is to talk to much, so I will try to avoid that. I urge all family members to social network, join Facebook, LinkedIn and other sites; sign on to Twitter to both follow and contribute; email me or comment appropriately in the blog; suggest how we might improve. There aren’t so many Searings (even with spelling variations) that we can’t actually know or at least know of each other. What benefits will flow from that? Let’s find out! Happy New Year, and may the decade of the 2010’s be welcome and beneficial to us all! Dan
Searings on Social Media
Thursday, December 10th, 2009Just 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, 2009The 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
Younger Notables
Friday, October 23rd, 2009Today we have another notable Searing…with recent accomplishments. First, I am happy to report that Elizabeth A.M. Searing (wife of Donald Searing, also mentioned elsewhere in the blog) , at the International Association for Research in Economic Psychology (IAREP) and Society for the Advancement of Behavioral Economics (SABE) Joint Conference at Halifax, CA in July 2009, presented a paper titled:
Casuistry: The Tape Measure in the Cognitive Toolbox.
The paper won one of the Best Paper awards. An abstract can be found here: http://www.smu.ca/iarepsabe09/documents/Searing-Casuistry-A.doc
Ms Searing is an MA Student, Dept of Economics Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA . All Searings congratulate Ms. Searing on her scholarship and hope that we can report many more publications
Looking For Searings II
Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009Last 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