Rodney, Thank you for sharing your sources. I visited the minerdescent.com site some time ago, but found it riddled with errors. It strikes me as one of those extremely ambitious attempts to vacuum up every conceivable source reference to family ancestors, without taking the necessary time to digest and analyze the results. It is full of sloppy errors, but may have other useful information as well. I'm not suggesting you disregard it -- just take it very carefully and not at complete face value. For example, the claim that the parents of Robert Ring (1614-1690) were Richard Ring and Elizabeth Shropshire is laughable, as even a careful reading of the evidentiary document cited shows. Richard Ring was Robert's brother (1609-1675) (Now his father may also have been a Richard Ring, but we do not know that). Elizabeth Shropshire was the daughter of Richard (1609-1675). Her married name was Shropshire. She was the niece of Robert Ring (1614-1690), not his mother! William Ring is from a different family of Rings, of which to date no one has shown any connection to the Rings of Marlborough, Wiltshire, England. William was a Separatist who lived in Leyden, Holland before emigrating with his wife Mary Durrant to America in 1620. They traveled on the Speedwell, sister ship to the Mayflower, but were turned back by the ship's poor condition. William died soon after in England and later his widow, Mary, with children emigrated to Plymouth where they established another branch of the New England Rings, in no way connected (as far as we know) to the Robert Ring line of Salisbury, MA. I could say more about minerdescent.com but will leave it at that for now. From which of Robert Ring's children are you descended? I am from son Joseph (1664-1703/1704). I have a narrative of this line which you might find interesting. If convenient, you may reach me off this board at franzm@flash.net.