First thoughts on beginning a blog

I wonder indeed what Guri Larsdatter would think could she know her great granddaughter is about to set up a blog (a what?!) named after her and which will be able to be read and seen by people all over the world by a simple click of a mouse (a what?!). Guri Larsdatter was born in Norway on April 4, 1865, and in 1882 at the age of seventeen, she left her country, her parents, her younger sisters and brothers to set sail for America, a long and difficult journey during which a young man she perhaps hoped to marry died at sea. She went on to Chicago, met a dapper Englishman, married, had seven children, among them, my grandmother, Florence, and never returned to Norway. If I've named this blog after her, it's because her example has been an inspiring one for all of her female descendants, myself included, and because I heard so much about her from my grandmother and my mother that I decided years ago to take her name Guri as my writing name. I like this connection with the past and with my ancestors, precious people who, however unknowingly, assured my brief existence upon this earth. That's enough for first thoughts, as--sorry, dear Great Grandmother--but I'm not at all sure of what I'm doing here yet. Posted May 25, 2008