Crossroads and a prelude to what

Are we at a crossroads? My mother used to describe the time before the Second World War as a crossroads. Like good sensible people; we in the democracies tried to avoid war simply because it is just massive destruction caused by dictators who are greedy. They are protected behind their solid line of "faithful" supporters who would die for them. This time we are helping Ukraine with munitions and verbal support. The Russians under Putin and his enablers can scream and shout that they are the abused just like Hitler did but in the long run their lust for power is the cause of every war that has ever happened in history - they are greedy. Simply greed and nothing more; they lust for power and possessions (as always the Russians are looting as they retreat). To get that power they will do anything - Bucha comes to mind. To break the morale of the democracies they create horrible images to frighten us into submission. So are we at a crossroads as Russia continues their destructive war in Ukraine - a war of attrition where their own people are used as fodder to try to kill Ukrainian soldiers (how foolish of them; Rise up O Russia and rid yourselves of Putin and his enablers). We keep seeing raw greed rise its head in our world and we keep having to go to war to stop it. Sometimes in little ways (we are the arsenal of Ukraine) and one would hope that the Ukrainians can halt this war of greed in Ukraine. Time will tell for sure but we are ready. COVID got us ready for this battle of the ages. Death has been all around us and we are not afraid. The European Union has remained strong; the people remember the Soviet Union rampaging across Europe in 1945 as they enslaved millions behind the Iron Curtain. A generation younger than I am remembers the Soviet Union as it maltreated the peoples of Eastern Europe behind their Iron Curtain.

I think China is the linch pin. What will they do? Are they so greedy that they are willing to sacrifice the gains of the last time period since the Second World War? Do they want a better life for their people? Communism is a way of life that some people accept and some do not (I can see the benefits of the communal life but do not like the oppression that grows within that communal life). Eventually the system always becomes tiered and not all peoples benefit equally. These countries that hate democracies hate us mostly because we permit free spirit to reign although tendered by laws that protect all of the peoples. We too can use an Emergency Act to force out people who take over control in an area and abuse the people in that area calling it a legal protest which it wasn't the moment that they entered the Rideau Centre unmasked right at the time of their arrival - they broke our bylaws.

Yesterday I spent time building trees (not my favourite thing actually); I am not a genealogist first but rather interested in DNA first and I do trees when I am trying to see into the data from a family viewpoint. I found some online trees but all stopped and were stumped by the parentage by one individual. I finally solved the riddle and it was a woman much older than usual having children in a second marriage. The first marriage had been much further back then one would have imagined and when I found her on the 1911 census she was 59 years of age with a six year old (the individual who had stumped the other tree makers). She was widowed twice by 1911 and that wasn't entirely obvious by the material provided as she simply added up all the years of marriage and all the children (sixteen in total with eleven dead) and the other five living with her at the time of the census correctly recorded with their surnames. However, this family was all in Gloucestershire back into that time frame and finally in Lancashire which I would have expected for a Buller-Taylor line. So I will continue looking at this interesting combo - a grandmother, father and daughter all tested at 23 and Me. Then there are two other matches that I have not yet looked at. Curiosity does drive one to look deeper into some of the matches; how are they matching? Phasing is certainly an interesting pastime and going back to great grandparents rather illuminating. I have large clusters of people who relate on some of these great grandparent lines like the Knight-Butt-Arnold group from the Winterbourne area of Dorsetshire where siblings married siblings of each of these families creating huge groups of individuals with collapsing pedigrees (and they are all over Canada from Newfoundland to British Columbia and then down into the United States from the mid 1850s on). The same happens in the Routledge-Routledge line 3x great grandparents (second cousins once removed) as I have matches with many individuals who trace back to this Bewcastle Cumberland family.

 Daylight savings has ended and I am up just a little earlier due to that so gives me an early start on the day. Soon breakfast and today is Sunday, Church on You-Tube.