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Archiver > ESSEX-ROOTS > 1998-02 > 0886565967


From: rleutner <>
Subject: Re: DOWNING
Date: Tue, 3 Feb 1998 22:19:27 -0600 (CST)


Well, Mariana, certainly so far my experience with DOWNING has
been in its way a "downer," but I haven't found anything yet
to suggest that the 2 surnames have been confounded, although
there's a good bet that DOWNING and DUNNING may get run
together some. It's hard to tell. I have been looking mainly
in the published MA Vital records books, where alternate
spellings are inconsistently handled. In the earliest couple
generations in Essex Co., I think the DOWNING name was
sufficiently well known among town clerks because of Emmanuel,
with his Winthrop connections, that the spelling probably kept
pretty straight even when the family was different, but I
can't swear to that. It's surely a problematical bunch. As I
have said to Phil Ellsworth (and I'm ashamed to admit I'm not
sure whether it was copied to the list), there seem to me to
have been at least 4 distinct DOWNING families busy
propagating in the northern part of Mass. Bay in the mid-late
17th C.

Hope this helps.

Bob Leutner
Iowa City IA

-----------------
On Tue, 3 Feb 1998, Mariana wrote:

> -- [ From: Mariana * EMC.Ver #2.5.02 ] --
>
> Any one considered whether DOWNING might be a variant on DOWNER?
> Mariana
> --
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