Hi Rod, from an unseasonably warm England. You may need to supply more context to your request The Downs, Kent is actually a very important historic area of sea off the Kent coast. See this Wikipedia explanation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Downs There is indeed a Thomas FRANCIS, born 1820, in the 1851 census as a Royal Marine stationed at Woolwich, Greenwich, handy for accessing any ship setting sail for The Downs. Not sure this is helpful to you really. Sorry. Moira From: rodg Sent: Thursday, April 23, 2015 6:17 PM To: south-africa-eastern-cape@rootsweb.com ; Paul TT Subject: [ZA-EC] The Downs Good evening all from a slowly cooling Cape Town, Thomas FRANCIS, 1820, came from The Downs. Kent. Years ago I camped on Mr BARAGWANITH,s farm called The Downs. Could there be a link there somewhere? Regards Rod g Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device