There is a space between order and wilderness — between what we think we know and what waits to be discovered.
That is where Into the Weeds lives.
Into the Weeds is the reflective research journal behind the Clan of the Ancestors saga — a place where genealogy, memory, and myth meet.
This is where I follow questions that don’t yet belong to a chapter. Where research pauses long enough to breathe. Where family history, folklore, and lived memory are allowed to speak to one another without being rushed toward conclusion.
It is not a separate story — it is the soil beneath one.
I write as Dúchas Quinn, (Dúchas Quinn (pronounced DOO-khass — the middle sound is a gentle, airy “kh,” common in Irish) a name chosen with intention. In Irish, dúchas speaks to heritage, native spirit, and the deep sense of belonging that survives displacement, silence, and time. Quinn honors ancestral threads that wind through Ireland and Scotland — threads that first called me to this work.
My background blends genealogy, psychology, and a lifetime of listening to inherited stories. I have spent decades tracing movements across continents, reading old records alongside family recollections, and noticing how memory shapes identity long before it becomes history.
I am both researcher and storyteller. The facts anchor me; the imagination allows them to live.
Into the Weeds is where those two instincts meet — openly, imperfectly, and honestly.
Clan of the Ancestors began as an effort to organize historical notes from my own family lines. As the research deepened, it became clear that the past is not static. It responds. It asks questions back.
This journal exists to explore what doesn’t fit neatly into narrative yet:
Every family carries a wilderness — the unknown, the unspoken, the misunderstood. These are the weeds people often avoid. I’ve found they are precisely where truth, myth, and meaning begin to tangle.
Into the Weeds gives that space room to exist.
Entries will vary in form and length, but the spirit remains consistent: curiosity, reflection, and close looking.
You’ll encounter:
This is not instruction. It is inquiry.
Not answers, but attentive listening
The roots of Clan of the Ancestors — and therefore Into the Weeds — stretch across many lands:
These are not just locations. They are layered territories of human experience — where courage, error, faith, and survival left traces still worth following.
My process follows a rhythm of pattern and pause.
I pay attention to intersections — where myth echoes a diary entry, where a rumor aligns with a document, where DNA supports an old family story once dismissed.
I trust evidence. I also trust intuition.
Sometimes what I find clarifies the saga. Sometimes it complicates it. Both outcomes matter.
If you choose to follow along, you may find:
This journal is an invitation — not just into my work, but into reflection itself.
Into the Weeds is part of a larger unfolding.
If you’re drawn to the story beneath the story, you’re invited to:
Everything here is currently offered freely, as an open exploration. In time, this space may grow — but the heart of the work will remain the same.
The journey doesn’t begin with certainty.
It begins with paying attention.