First
I’ll try to explain
where I came up with the title for this work. While
getting ready to start this project, I thought I would
read a little bit about the life and times of the
period I chose as a beginning. I found, in reading
about England in the late 1700’s and early 1800’s, that
the English noblemen were pretty ruthless in the
collection of what they thought were reasonable taxes
on the common man. After all, they protected their
subjects from the other noblemen, meted out justice,
and all sorts of other needed functions that the poor
working class couldn’t do for themselves. The noblemen
were empowered by the King of England to collect the
taxes within their Shire (or county). The King, also
provided that a nobleman could appoint someone to
collect the taxes and, if need be, evict and take
possession of the property of anyone not paying the
taxes. This appointed tax collector become known as
the Shire Reeve. Today, we call him the Sheriff.
Considering that I found
this tidbit of information to be fascinating, you
could rightly assume that I don’t get out very much.
Second
The method to my
madness. In other words, the order in which I am
presenting this information. Keep in mind that, in
genealogy, there isn’t really a beginning or an end.
So, where to start and where to end, became the first
decision I had to make.
I noticed that the
generation which contained my great-great-grandparents
was the earliest generation in which I could name
them all. So, I decided that would be the starting
point. The end would be my parents generation. That
decision was totally arbitrary.