This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/jUB.2ACI/1131.1 Message Board Post: There is no doubt - they went in search of readily available, less expensive, farm land. Many in Southold, as early as the 1740s, had begun to feel crowded. And there are statements that exist to this effect. But although many families had acquired hundreds - if not thousands - of acres these lands had been divided amonst many successive generations, and in many cases there was little left. This is interesting, since land acquisition here on eastern Long Island had provided families, for the mast part, with considerably larger land possessions than those inhabiting Mass Bay. You must keep in mind also, that these were the days before farm implements or equipment, and the days before fertilization.