I’ve always heard it described as almost inevitable with old money southern families when the name’s about to die out. “Tired blood.”
We lost our old money to the Yankees so I’m not a good authority
Honestly few of my ancestors were gentry
My great great grandpa who fought at Vicksburg and Shiloh etc with Miss cavalry ...Boyston I think was their commander....he had 1200 acres but it wasn’t loam and he had 23 kids up into his 70s
He was a squire pretty much but not fancy
His baby girl just died at around 92 I think
My wife is a Barksdale-Wade-Polk of middle TN
Now they really lost a pile
Her great great grandpa had 15,000 acres between here and Mississippi south of Vicksburg and 100s of slaves
Gone with the Wind as they say
They basically reverted to hillbilly class but the faded gentility still shows in her good manners....and her mom and all her sisters too
It’s like Cromwell rode through....it takes a long time to recover