This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Smith Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/VJIBAEB/1410.1453.1.2 Message Board Post: I am also descended from John "Rock" Smith. I recently found a book on the "Rock Smiths" on Heritage Quest. The title is "The Rock Smith Family to the Tenth Generation" by Valentine W. Smith, publ. Jamaica, New York, The Queens Borough Public Library,1937. The author bases his work on papers - deeds and wills, etc. that he found in his grandfather's attic and other excellent sources. An amazing find. The first John "Rock" Smith and his son John "Rock" Smith,Jr. were followers of Rev. Richard Denton and traveled with him from Stamford, Conn to Hemstead, NY and eventually, Long Island, New York. The "Rock" in the name was apparently to identify the family from other Smith families and the author says at the time in the same area there were also "Nan" Smiths, "Bull" Smiths, "Black" Smiths as well as the "Rock" Smiths. The reason for "Rock" is not known for sure. The author says it was presumably applied to the early family as a whole and was used in about twenty of the old papers and is found in individual names to the fourth generation, and fell out of use eventually. John Smith himself signed simply as John Smith and other times with the "Rock" An entry in one of the oldest books of the record in the State LIbrary at Albany says that John Smith, Sr., of the first settlers of Long Island, proceeded to Suffolk County and established the "Rock" Smith family there. Another source, "Gabriel Furman's Antiquities of Long Island says of the original John Smiths,"One originally settled between Rockaway and Hemstead..." The Valentine W. Smith's "Rock Smith Family" also says there's a legend that connects the "Rock" Smith designation with a house built in New England with a rock inside for a fireplace back." I hope this is helpful.