So. I find out I’ve got a fascinating family story. I want to tell people about my ancestor, Nicholas Delaney. I write (well, co-write) a book.
Then I want to tell people about the book. Plus I’d love to hear from Delaney rellies and anyone else with a similar story.
So I put loads of information and pix up on a website. Then there are problems. So I start building another site. How things have changed! My basic html is now stone-age. Hilariously inadequate. Sometimes I think I’ve got style sheets cascading past my eyes as I try to get to sleep. And as for Search Engine Optimisation and analytics…
Meanwhile my co-author is asking: “How’s the web thing going?” Hmmm… slowly.
My grandfather, Laurence Thomas Delaney, and me
So I decide to start a blog. A blog about the website about the book? That could be a bit dull and, well, self-obsessive. A blog that does things the site and the book can’t do? Yes! That’ll be fun!
I can add information that’s come to light since the book was published. I can pop in snippets too small for a whole web page. I can cross my fingers and hope to get feedback from other people looking at family history, the Irish rebellion of 1798, early colonisation in Australia and perhaps even from fellow descendants of Nicholas Delaney and his wife, Elizabeth Bayly.
And it’s great displacement activity.
A Rebel Hand 