This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: DOWNING Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/AUT.2ACEB/1247 Message Board Post: I'm curious because I've run into a bunch of people on censuses who were named Erasmus Downing Something or other. The earliest I've seen was b. 1816, and most were b. before 1850 -- then there are nephews, sons, grandsons. Google didn't turn up anything helpful about who Erasmus Downing was and why all these babies were named for him. I thought he might have been a politician, but http://politicalgraveyard.com/ doesn't list him. Does anyone know?