On 4/15/04 (11:07:05 AM MST), in a posting to NYQUEENS-L@rootsweb.com, Bill Wood (doow124141@msn.com) asked, "Hi List, Does any one know if Rockaway was the same name in the Mid 1700 & how far apart are Far Rockaway & Rockaway Beach. Also is there a Genealogy Society or Library that I can get in touch with in Rockaway." While Far Rockaway and Rockaway Beach are now part of the Borough of Queens/Queens County in New York City, pre-1898, the entire Rockaway peninsula was part of a larger 'Rockaway' area, including the so-called 5-towns area and extending to what is now the Village of East Rockaway, and was in the Town of Hempstead, then in Queens County. (In 1898, the western-quarter of Queens County -- the City of Long Island City and the Towns of Newtown, Flushing and Jamaica, as well as the Rockaway peninsula of the Town of Hempstead -- became coterminous with the Borough of Queens in New York City; a year later, the eastern two-thirds of Queens County -- the Town of North Hempstead, Hempstead and Oyster Bay -- seceded and formed Nassau County.) Far Rockaway and Rockaway Beach are about 2-1/2 to 3 miles apart, with Far Rockaway the most eastern part of the Rockaway peninsula and Rockaway Beach two neighborhoods to the west, separated from Far Rockaway by the neighborhoods of Edgemere and Arverne. For questions such as yours, you may want to contact the Queens Borough Public Library: Queens Borough Public Library 89-11 Merrick Boulevard New York (Jamaica P.O.), NY 11432 Tel: 718/990-0700 Fax: 718/???-???? Contact information: http://www.queenslibrary.org/about/gen_info.asp Home page: http://www.queenslibrary.org/ I hope this information is useful or, at least, interesting. Walter Greenspan