Unearthing Your Coal Miner Relatives at the Pennsylvania State Archives
The Pennsylvania State Archives hold numerous collections which pertain to persons either employed in or in some way associated with the anthracite (hard coal) and bituminous (soft coal) mining industries of the Commonwealth. The anthracite fields stretch for nearly 500 square miles across portions of northeastern Pennsylvania, while the bituminous fields underlie most of the western counties, as well as portions of the northern tier of the state. Unfortunately, there is not a great deal of documentation concerning rank and file miners and mine workers in the collections of the State Archives. There are a few notable exceptions, including:
Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company Inactive Employment Record Cards, 1913-1965, Manuscript Group 311, Series 18 (2 boxes)
These five groups would be a good starting point for researchers wishing to locate non-management personnel who may have worked in Pennsylvania's coal industries. For all other job titles associated with the mines, including administrative personnel, mine foremen, assistant mine foremen, mine inspectors, fire bosses and electricians, see the remaining record and manuscript groups listed below.
Collections containing genealogical material are chiefly located at the Anthracite Heritage Museum in Scranton. Please call 570-963-4845 to make an appointment to view the materials held there. Eckley Miner's Village also holds a few documents and publications, however there are not an apprecible number of relevant genealogical items housed at the site.
These payroll ledgers document workers who labored at the Cameron, Hickory Ridge, Hickory Swamp, Luke Fidler and Pennsylvania Collieries of the Susquehanna Coal Company. They are organized by colliery and then chronologically by month within each volume. Unfortunately there are no name indexes and the names for each month are not arranged alphabetically, so the researcher may have to search in a number of ledgers to find a name they are looking for.
The accident registers are arranged by mining district, then chronologically by the date of the accident. The anthracite registers have been compiled in a database by researcher Jerry Sherard and are available for viewing online. For those not familiar with the layout of the various mining districts over time, follow the preceeding link website and choose either "Bituminous County Search" or "Anthracite County Search," and follow the instructions.
Anthracite Mine Certification Records for Foremen and Assistant Foremen, 1886-1968, {series #66.1}. (36 volumes)
Organized numerically by certificate numbers, which were assigned chronologically, this series consists of three types of certification recordings: Certificate Books, Certificate Receipt Books, and Registers.
Bituminous Mine Certification Records for Assistant Foremen, 1911-1923, {series #45.3} . (6 volumes) Microfilm Rolls #6426-6430
Each volume is individually indexed by the surname of the foreman, with the records arranged in numerical order by certificate number.
Bituminous Mine Certification Records for Assistant First and Second Grade Foremen, 1923-1963, {series #45.4} . (5 volumes) Microfilm Roll #6452
The volumes are individually indexed by the surname of the foreman, with the records organized in numerical order by certificate number.
Bituminous Mine Certification Records for Fire Boss Examiners, 1912-1963, {series #45.5}. (12 volumes) Microfilm Rolls #6444-6451, 6453
Each volume is individually indexed by the surname of the examiner, with the records arranged in numerical order by certificate number. The last volume also contains Bituminous Mine Certification Records for Electricians {series #45.6}, for the years 1962-1963.
Bituminous Mine Certification Records for Electricians, 1939-1963, {series #45.6} . (2 volumes) Microfilm Roll #6453
The volumes are individually indexed by the surname of the electrician, with the records grouped in numerical order by certificate number. The last volume also contains Bituminous Mine Certification Records for Fire Boss Examiners (Series #45.6), for the years 1962 and 1963.
Bituminous Mine Certification Records for First Grade Foremen, 1903-1963, {series #45.7} . (10 volumes) Microfilm Rolls #6431-6437
Each volume is individually indexed by the surname of the foreman, with the records arranged in numerical order by certificate number.The last volume also contains Bituminous Mine Certification Records for Second Grade Forman {series #45.8} , for the years 1962-1963.
Bituminous Mine Certification Records for Second Grade Foremen, 1903-1963, {series #45.8} . (9 volumes) Microfilm Rolls #6438-6443, 6452
The volumes are individually indexed by the surname of the foreman, with the records organized in numerical order by certificate number. The last volume also contains Bituminous Mine Certification Records for First Grade Foreman {series #45.7} , for the years 1962-1963.
Arranged numerically by mining district, then chronologically by year.
Registers of Mine Accidents for the Bituminous Districts, 1899-1972, {series #45.15} . (20 volumes) Microfilm Roll #3593-3602
Similar to the anthracite registers of Series #45.14, these volumes are grouped by mining district, then chronologically by the date of the accident. The bituminous registers for the years 1899-1932 have been compiled in a database by researcher Jerry Sherard and are available for viewing online. For those not familiar with the layout of the various mining districts over time, follow the preceeding link website and choose either "Bituminous County Search" or "Anthracite County Search," and follow the instructions.
These records are arranged by examination number, and include testing and related data for Mine Foreman, Assistant Mine Foreman, Mine Examiner and Mine Electrician examinations.
Index Stubs and Cards to Miners Certificates, 1937-1965, {series #66.7}. (91 boxes)
This group of certificate stubs and cards is an invaluable resource to researchers who are trying to locate relatives who mined bituminous coal from the late 1930s to the early 1960s. All stubs and cards are organized alphabetically by surname, and are grouped into four separate batches as follows: Cards which date from 1937 and 1938; Certificate stubs dating from 1939 through roughly 1965; Certificate Stubs which date from the late 1930s; and Machine Runner & Cutting, Loading, and Drilling Machine Operators Certificate Stubs, dating from 1938 through the late 1950s, possibly the early 1960s.
