Burke's published this collection of Family Records as a supplement to its" Peerage and Baronetage" and the "Landed Gentry." The nobility and gentry of England, Scotland, and Wales, as Mr. Burke explains in his preface, "are by no means confined to these classes, but include many other families of equal position, descent and alliance, for a gentleman derives his nobility from his ancestors and not from the mere possession of lands or titles . . ...