Coal mining

[Ellie]

For anyone interested in the background of mining I have found a very interesting link:-
http://www.cmhrc.co.uk/site/home/index.html
In particular there is quite a bit of information concerning accidents/ mining disasters.

 

[leefer]

Thanks Ellie,will have a gander at that.

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On the link Ellie left,first of all i never realised that mining was so big in the Merseyside area,secondly the reports on deaths in 1848 including one boy aged 9!

Brilliant site this,a little gloomy and sad in places but has some great info on all aspects of coal mining.

 

[Ellie]

Hi Lee
Thanks yes it's an interesting site although very sad in parts.

 

[Ellie]

Here's another one - coal mining museum
http://www.ncm.org.uk/

 

[benny1982]

Thanks for the links Ellie. I have coal mining ancestors from Durham.

 

[Ellie]

My links are Staffordshire, a lot of my fathers family are connected to the mining industry (except my dad).

 

[benny1982]

Some of my miner ancestors lived to good ages. I think 65ish was an average retirement age for a miner. In their later years in mining they normally worked at the entrance giving out lamps and such. I visited a mining museum last year and was told all this.

 

[Ellie]

Funny you should say that as I found a lot of my ancestors to be old for the time. Although a link I found on a genealogy site said she'd heard on of our ancestors died in a mining accident in 1923. I haven't found any evidence of this though-yet.
Have you ever come across head coup? I think I did post a link up a while ago but I can't find it in previous posts. Anyway with miners quite commonly having head coup I thought I'd read up on it, for anyone that's interested have a look at this link :-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coup_contrecoup_injury

 

[leefer]

If the mine didn't grab em the dust usually did,many miners suffered with chest problems and combine that with heavy smoking which was the norm at the time the future was bleak for a retired miner.
That throws up another issue,many of the miners must have been smokers..........that must have been a long shift without a fag

 

[Ellie]

Yes you're right Lee. As they'd be down there for a long time so if they weren't smokers to begin with, maybe they were by the time they'd finished

 

[Ellie]

I've been reading online this afternoon and found another interesting link:-
http://mininghistory.thehumanjourney.net/edu/WMIntro.shtml
If you scroll down there are more links

 

[benny1982]

Thomas Musgrave my direct ancestor who went to America in 1886 aged 58 was a coal miner. He was still alive in 1900 aged 72 and by then was retired. I think he died inbetween 1906 and April 1910 and am going to send off for his Pennsylvania death cert.

 

[Ellie]

Sounds interesting Ben.

 

[JMR]

Funny you should say that as I found a lot of my ancestors to be old for the time. Although a link I found on a genealogy site said she'd heard on of our ancestors died in a mining accident in 1923. I haven't found any evidence of this though-yet.
Have you ever come across head coup? I think I did post a link up a while ago but I can't find it in previous posts. Anyway with miners quite commonly having head coup I thought I'd read up on it, for anyone that's interested have a look at this link :-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coup_contrecoup_injury

Thanks for this information Ellie, I hadn't come across this injury before. My Gt Gt Grandfather James Wells died of brain disease and convulsions aged 33. He was a coal miner, but started young in the mines as a hurrier. He died 2 months before my Gt Grandmother was born.

Cheers,
Jill

 

[Ellie]

Glad you found it useful Jill.
What an awful demise for your gt gt grandfather.
I hadn't heard of head coup either initially. I came across it on the armed forced short service enlistment paperwork for my x2 great grandfather. It intrigued me and so I wanted to read more about it.