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/XcB.2ACE/290.1 Message Board Post: Intriging: I have done Downing research on the Island as an Ann married Thomas Wright in 1740. I did an area search trying to find her parents or core family with out a lot of success. I did find various Downings around Southern New England and there were Downings on the Island such as Dan mentioned on rateable polls in 1744, Thomas and Moses were working on the Harbor in 1740. There are two other female Downing marriages as well, Desire married Nat Dodge in 1732, and your Rathbone marriage. Moses married a Mary Adams from South Kingstown and were having children in the 1740's. The only other Moses Downing was in 1790 in Easton Mass. census. There were four Downing girls in Westerly in the 1740's. So like I mentioned, no early core families that I have found so far. They just pop up on Block Island and dissapear. No land evidence probates or anything else.