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Given the popularity of "Church of the First Born" in so much early Mormon literature, and given that it is known that this group was already quite old when Smith came along, I suspect they play a greater part than you can imagine. (One group was founded in/near what is now called Brownsville TX circa 1703. Odds are good this church popped up wherever there were permanent or semi-permanent sites developed for Scandinavian whaling fleets.)

Rigdon came with his congregation(s) ~ I think in the end he was determined to be a bit nuts though. It's a mixed bag regarding the degree of early Christian Church movement and LDS entanglements ~ but they have been acknowledged by many researchers to have been numerous. Probably worth a doctorate or two for some candidate for a Ph.D in history. I do know Mormons are more open about it than DofC folks, and you can send them screaming from the church on Wednesday night you bring this up with the Church of Christ.