My several times removed cousin Ned Bennett Crislip put together the 600+ page book entitled, Ancestors and Descendants of Norris and Elizabeth Bennett, published in 2001. As you can guess it is a genealogy + anecdotes about one zig-zagging branch of our family, beginning in the 1590s.
There is so much to love about this book, especially the fact that the illustrations for the first third are all photographs of tombstones and snow covered farmhouses.
Let me just flip to a page--
p. 275: Concerning John Doane, ordered to "get a pair of stocks and whipping-post made for use of the town." Further down the page it says "In 1701 and 1702, he was one of the Negative Men." I'll look up what that means later, but for now I am content to savor the possibilities.
ps--my rough understanding of "The Negative Men"--a council with the power to veto/limit the sale or gift of communal land offered by popular decision.
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