Silent, but busy

Some of the best things are the ones that haven't been revealed... yet.

Photo by David Clode on Unsplash

Must be surprising to see my name pop up in your inbox again, right? I know. Turns out a 3 month hiatus was not in the grand plan of things for me, but that gap in my writing was not without advancements. I am happy to say there was a lot going on behind the scenes in the place of this. I’ll talk about these things in due course because something that has taken up a lot of my time is back and forth with officials, offices and departments - and I think if I talk about those things before I’ve got a resolution, I’ll end up jinxing it.

I’m back in the swing of things with University, adjusting to my new normal as both myself and my sister are in higher education now, I do subcontracting work now, I’ve got more written pieces due to come out in publications, presentations to make - it never stops!

But, I do have two pieces to finish writing for my Substack. One of which, I am still debating over whether to do it as a podcast episode or a blog post.

Which brings me to my next thing, my podcast will be returning. But, under a new name. At the moment, it’s called ‘The Irish Genealogy Podcast’. When it’s relaunched, it’ll be known as ‘The Research Reverie’.

So, you’re probably thinking, why the rebrand and name change?

Well, that stems from the purpose. When I started my podcast in December of 2021, I set out with the intention of making it a place of all things relating to Irish genealogy. But, things change, and so do I. When I launched Project Infant in July 2022, a mere 7 months later - I did find myself not wanting to repeat myself on subjects and it resulted in me starting to regret pigeon-holing myself into an individual subject, so it stayed neglected. I did do some episodes (Find a Grave, the #SaveOurWills campaign) that weren’t strictly Irish genealogy but had tried to tie it into that where possible, even if that was somewhat small.

Later on, I put more work into making videos for TikTok, and fortunately for me, my account got verified at the start of April which put my mind at rest for anyone who’d try to impersonate me - so I put a ton of effort into my content there, where I’d share my research there like a diary. However, while some things work on TikTok - not everything does. Some people enjoyed the longer kind, others would enjoy the shorter kind.

Let’s connect! I’m @danielloftusgenealogy on TikTok.

So, I’d often find people reaching out to me asking whether I had a podcast or not. It seemed to be something of interest to people. So, I started to look into rebranding and reviving it.

But, why that name? It came to me as a lightbulb idea. The same kind of lightbulb idea that resulted in Project Infant. They don’t strike me often, but when they do - it usually tends to be something good! The key word in the new name is ‘Reverie’. Reverie, according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary has two meanings, they are defined as:

1. Daydream

2. The condition of being lost in thought

Both of those definitions describe me whenever I do anything relating to genealogy research. By going for this name, you never know what it might be. It might be genealogy research, mother and baby homes, a fusion of the two, or something else entirely.

There’s still some things behind the scenes that are still being done, before it’ll be officially relaunched - but it’ll eventually return to the platforms you know and love. But between YouTube and a podcast, my heart leans towards a podcast more. (I’m not sure why, but I’m not questioning it.)

Now, Project Infant - oh, Project Infant. I am looking forward to seeing how that evolves. Below are the current totals of how many institutional deaths that we have recorded. I am so lucky to have the amazing volunteers (click here if you want to get involved!) who help me on a day to day basis to do the work that we do — to ensure that no name of any person who died in an institution is ever forgotten.

It is a fast moving time, I’m currently contemplating expanding the research scope once more. But, I’m assessing the practicality of it first! There’s some additional interactive areas of the website I’m working to develop more as well. It’s never a quiet time, I can assure you.

But, I’m happy above all else because I am right where I want to be. Thank you for your patience in waiting for me to grace your inbox again, but I’m hoping it won’t be long before the next one! As always, please consider subscribing to my Substack (it’s free, and it’s the one sure way I can guarantee you will hear about what I do) as whenever I am in the writing spirit, I let my ideas run loose here. Some, are out of the box, some might be obvious. But above all else, this outlet is cathartic for me whenever I need to rant or speak my mind. What you see (from my past posts) is the kind of stuff you’ll get.

Until next time…