My Ancestor was a Coal Miner from Scotland's Genealogy

U.S. Coal Regions from the USGS

The migration patterns of Scottish coal miners is definitely not my specialty, but from what I do know colliers either left Scotland because they no longer wished to be miners or because they could be better paid miners in America. I know my great-grandfather, David Hood and many of his family members worked the pits in Ayrshire and Stirlingshire. Neither my great-grandfather nor any of his sons, to the best of my knowledge, worked in the mines after coming to America.

If you too have coal mining ancestors, read this post, Black Diamonds:My Ancestor was a Coal Miner, by Chris at Scotland's Genealogy. It includes a brief history of mines, pictures, sources and links, including one to the Scottish Coal Mining Museum.


nb. An earlier version of this post went out last week. I hit "publish" instead of "save as draft." I guess I should not do these things so late in the evening.  My apologies.