Do you know of Black Rock ???

This page is an orphan - a placeholder until we can discover more about Black Rock. When we encounter a name that is new to us, we add it to our Gazetteer with the hope that we'll discover more information in the future. Such is the case with Black Rock.

We found mention of Black Rock as a post office (see Mentions and References below), but can't determine its location - other than being located somewhere in Rappahannock County, Virginia.

It's common that the post office is named the same as the community in which it's located (although that's not always case). In this case, we can't match this post office to any of the existing communities in our gazetteer.

From the Blevins / Hellbock List: The post office opened in 1839 and closed in 1857.

This entry could have originated in error. It might be that a source had a misprint, was simply wrong or we made a transcription error while referencing it. Many of the documents we reference are from the 1800s and the early 1900s, with some easier to read than others.

Part of the difficulty in identifying whether a name is a post office or a community lies with how Post Offices were named. We've prepared an article with our understanding of how post offices were named: Naming of Post Offices.

Communities Also Named Black Rock ...

We found fourteen communities that share the name Black Rock.

Within Virginia, the name Black Rock is unique.

Beyond Virginia, we know of another fourteen communities that are located throughout in the United States and Canada. Of these fourteen communities, twelve are located in the United States and six are in Canada.

Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
- Alabama
  - Crenshaw County
  - We found mention of this community, but have little information.<1> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Alabama community of Black Rock [Crenshaw County].
- Arkansas
  - Lawrence County
  - Please visit our profile page for the Arkansas community of Black Rock [Lawrence County].
- Connecticut
  - Fairfield County
  - Please visit our profile page for the Connecticut community of Black Rock [Fairfield County].
- Indiana
  - Warren County
  - Please visit our profile page for the Indiana community of Black Rock [Warren County].
- Kentucky
  - Grayson County
  - Please visit our profile page for the Kentucky community of Black Rock [Grayson County].
- Maryland
  - Baltimore County
  - We found mention of this community, but have little information.<1> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Maryland community of Black Rock [Baltimore County].
- Massachusetts
  - Norfolk County
  - Please visit our profile page for the Massachusetts community of Black Rock [Norfolk County].
- New Brunswick
  - Please visit our profile page for the New Brunswick community of Black Rock.
- New Mexico
  - McKinley County
  - Please visit our profile page for the New Mexico community of Black Rock [McKinley County].
- New York
  - Cayuga County
  - Please visit our profile page for the New York community of Black Rock [Cayuga County].
  - Erie County
  - We found mention of this community, but have little information.<1> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the New York community of Black Rock [Erie County].
- Nova Scotia
  - We found mention of this community, but have little information.<1> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Nova Scotia community of Black Rock.
- Oregon
  - Polk County
  - Please visit our profile page for the Oregon community of Black Rock [Polk County].
- Utah
  - Millard County
  - Please visit our profile page for the Utah community of Black Rock [Millard County].

Miscellaneous References and Mentions for Black Rock ...

We've created the following list to keep track of the sources that proved useful in adding to our knowledge about Black Rock:

Found in a comprehensive list of Post Offices that was created by Cameron Blevins and Richard Helbock.<2>

Table of U.S. Post Offices in the United States (Jan. 1851)
Published by W. & J.C. Greer, Printers

U.S. Post Offices (Oct. 1846)
Published by John T. Towers

More Orphans in Rappahannock County ...

Can you help?

As we explained above, when we encounter a name that might be a community or a post office we add it to our Gazetteer. If we have little information to go with the name, we call them Orphans. Below are Orphans that we believe to be located in Rappahannock County.

Ben Venue	Lottie

Cloud	Piedmont

Hughes River	Sandy

Footnotes ...

<1>

If we encounter the name of what might be a community, our methodology is to add that name to our Gazetteer as a placeholder. As we find more information about that community, it will be added to our Gazetteer.

Just as a reminder: Our definition of a community is rather broad and includes those places (or areas) where several families lived and had a name which identified that place. For example, you might hear somebody say that they are going over to Bird Creek to see Pete ... Bird Creek is just a gas station and a couple of homes at the crossroads. While it might not be on the map, everybody in the area knows it by that name.

Places of interest include buildings at a crossroad, several families clustered in a hollow or maybe the location of a way station. It also includes places like mines, lumber camps, ferry crossings, etc. The community might still exist, is now gone or only existed for just a short period of time.

Also keep in mind that Black Rock could have been on the original document by mistake, misspelled, the original/alternate name of a community that we've listed elsewhere or was placed in the wrong county. Sometimes a post office or train station would have a different name than the community where it's located, so two names might be referring to the same community - we're working to straighten it all out.

<2>

A copy of their list with background information can be found at:

https://cblevins.github.io/us-post-offices/data-biography/