is likely to have inherited. It is likely he was able to increase his holding
as Hamit and his brothers grew up, probably somewhere between I890 and 1910
Hamit himself was less fortunate. His eldest son, born about 1895, died about I940;
but his second and third sons' official years of birth were about I916 and I921 respectively.
His eldest grandson was born about I925. Hence at no point before the late nineteen-twenties
did he have much help with farming, and it is not surprising that he did not succeed
in expanding his own holdings.
Two of his brothers had fared likewise. They had both passed on to their heirs about the same quantity of land as Hamit had inherited from his father. One had had two sons, born 1905 and 1910, the other only one. But a third brother had passed on about one hundred dönüm at least, and perhaps more. He had been the most successful begetter of sons. Their official dates of birth were I900, I908 and 1918. Thus in the immediate post war period (1922-25) he would have had at least two sons old enough to plough, and it seems reasonable to assume that it was then that he was able to expand his holdings.
One such example may seem a little thin; in fact similar evidence from other lineages leads to similar conclusions, putting the matter beyond reasonable doubt.
The closing down of the right to plough village pasture must have been gradual. Even now people are accused of surreptitious encroachment on village meadow land, and plainly public opinion in the village against such ploughing would form slowly, and become really effective only when the situation began to look serious. The absence of men in the armies between 1911 and I923 and the loss of many of them, may actually have reversed the process for a time.