Hey, Ortho. I grew up in Cincinnati near the outreach area of "Landmark Baptist Church." My father used to subscribe to a newsletter from a Kentucky baptist church (Ashland Ave. Bapt) that included an offer once upon a time to read a booklet on "baptist history." I believe it was called the "Trail of Blood" and was authored, perhaps, by a guy named Carroll(?).
The premise of the book was that baptists PRECEDED these 1600 groups that you mention and went all the way back to the inception of the church. They used certain distinguishing characteristics to track "independent, baptistic" groups back through history. I've heard this view called "landmarkism" (hence the mention of Landmark Baptist above).
Do you support that theory? Or do you consider the baptists to be classic protestors, arising originally from dissatisfaction with the Catholic Church? Or something else?
I honestly believe that the questions I ask in that post will lead to a more productive discussion than that which we have seen of late.