Library Guides: Pennsylvania Mines and Mining: Mining People and Companies

Finding Miners and Geneaology

This guide is focused on mines rather than miners. For those seeking information about persons, consult the following.

Genealogy guide (Penn State)
This guide to doing genealogical research provides helpful suggestions for sources.
Coal Miner Records at the Pennsylvania State Archives.
Family History guide (for miners in U.K.)
A guide to researching family history for miners in the United Kingdom.
Molly Maguires
United Mine Workers of America photographic collection
These are part of a large collection of UMWA records held in the Special Collections Library.
Coal, Steel, & Industrial Unionism Digital Resources
Guide to United Mine Workers digital collection and other related resources in the Penn State Special Collections
Living Conditions among Coal Mine Workers of the United States
1924 article on life in bituminous coal mining areas
Coal Mining in the Guilded Age and Progressive Era
E-history site by the History department at Ohio State University.

History of African-American Miners in the Appalachian Coal Fields
Brief history produced by the Mine Safety and Health Administration (copy stored in Internet Archive)
Mining Hall of Fame (U.S.)
Over 250 inductees with biographical data.

Additional sources for researching miners include:

Genealogical tools such as Ancestry.com
U.S. Census
Local newspapers
Local historical societies
Coal or mining newspapers and periodicals (Colliery Guardian, etc.)
City directories (e.g., Pittsburgh region in the 1860s; or Directory of the Monongahela and Youghiogheny Valleys)

Life as a Miner

Lippincott Library Collection of Annual Reports
Provided by UPenn, The collection consists of annual reports in PDF format from U.S. companies, and covers the period 1800 through 1955. Reports are continuously added
Census of Mineral Industries
As part of the Economic Census, data on companies was collected every 5-10 years. This guide from Portland State Univ. outlines the history and dates of this census.

Mergent Archives This link opens in a new window
Database with access to a collection of over 180,000 corporate and industry related documents.
Mergent Archives is an online database with access to a collection of over 180,000 corporate and industry related documents, including Annual Reports, Corporate Manuals and Municipal Manuals.... This collection is primarily useful for historical research. The database also includes the Mergent Patents Archives which consists of 9.2 million utility, design, and plant patents going back to the mid 1800s. The database also includes the Country Report module, a module that consists of the following resources: DnB Country Risk Profile, DnB Country RiskLine Report, and Mergent Country Profile. Also includes D & B Industry Norms and Key Business Ratios.

Saward's coal trade
This weekly trade journal documents many of the industry players, from 1919 to the 1967.
Coal and Coal Trade Journal
Weekly trade information from 1872-1936
Keystone Coal Industry Manual
This work and its subsequent variants provide basic company data for the U.S.
E/MJ International Directory of Mining
1967-1996
World Mines Register
1900-1981; focus is on ore minerals.
Poole Bros. mining directory and reference book of the United States, Canada and Mexico
1898
Mining International Year Book
1887-1978.

Directory of Obsolete Securities
Resource for fate of company and the value of the stock when the merger or acquisition occurred.
Robert D. Fisher manual of valuable and worthless securities
Old Stock and Bond Certificates
Advice from SEC about researching old certificates.
Scripophily: collecting bonds and share certificates
1982 book
Collecting Stocks and Bonds
This work has information about mining certificates.