From coast to coast, U.S. records from the ‘genealogy giants’ are new and updated this week. Findmypast has a new collection of mine accident records for Pennsylvania (and we’ll also highlight a similar collection for England). Ancestry.com has updated a large number of genealogy collections for U.S. marriage, census, and military records that you’ll want to check out. And lastly, FamilySearch has made updates to a small set of U.S. county, tax, and enumeration records.

Pennsylvania, Register Of Mine Accidents

Mining was an integral part of United States history. Immigrants were able to find work in the mines but sometimes at great risk and peril. Findmypast has a new collection that may shed light on the miners in your family tree.

The Pennsylvania Register of Mine Accidents is a collection containing records from the Department of Mines and Mineral Industries. These records document mine accidents for the anthracite districts and the bituminous districts between 1899 and 1972. They are held by the Pennsylvania State Archives and links to the PDF versions of the accident registers are available on the transcripts.

The records explain where the accident happened, the cause, whether the accident was or was not fatal, and who was at fault. A few examples of the accidents include caught in a conveyor belt, runaway trip wrecked into an empty trip, crushed with a possible fracture of the leg, fallen roof, and falling coal.

With each record, you will find a transcript of the vital information about the individual involved in the mining accident, including nationality, name, age, marital status, and other details. Over time the amount of information recorded at the time of the accident changed as the volume of accidents diminished.

More Mining Records at Findmypast

If your mining ancestors were immigrants, they may have also been miners in their home countries. Findmypast has another fascinating collection of records of England Mining Disaster Victims. Included in these records are the 26 children who lost their lives in the Huskar Pit disaster of 1838 as well as 88 of the men who died in the Cadeby Main pit disaster in 1912. The initial explosion at Cadeby Main killed a total of 38 men; however, when a rescue party was sent in, another explosion occurred, killing 53 of the rescue workers.

From these transcripts, you can discover the following information: name, birth year, age, event date, colliery, and incident details. Four counties are represented in the records: Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, and Yorkshire. This collection has been obtained from the Alan Beales Database of Fatalities in the Coal Fields. Additional information about the records can we found on the source’s website.

Updated U.S. Records at Ancestry.com

Over at Ancestry.com you’ll find big updates to numerous records collections for the U.S.

Marriage Records

Military Records

Census Records

More Updated US Genealogy Records at FamilySearch

Lastly, we head over to the all-free genealogy giant website FamilySearch. This week they’ve made updates to the following US genealogy records collections:

Most of these updates are pretty small, under 2,000 records. But you never know where your ancestor’s name might be lurking! The Ohio Tax Records collection has over 1.5 million new records, so if you have Ohio ancestors you’ll definitely want to check it out.

More U.S. Research Resources on the Free Genealogy Gems Podcast

If you’re filling in the gaps of your family tree with your U.S. ancestors, you’ll love episode #193 of the free Genealogy Gems Podcast! In this episode, we’ll talk about tips for using the U.S. Public Records Index. We’ll also dig deep into using the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) for genealogy research, including what kind of records you can access, how to request them, and more. Take listen to this episode right now in the YouTube media player below, or find it on the go on the Genealogy Gems App!

About the Author: Lisa Louise Cooke is the producer and host of the Genealogy Gems Podcast, an online genealogy audio show and app. She is the author of the books The Genealogist’s Google Toolbox, Mobile Genealogy, How to Find Your Family History in Newspapers, and the Google Earth for Genealogy video series. She is an international keynote speaker and the Vice President of the Genealogical Speakers Guild.

Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links and Genealogy Gems will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on these links (at no additional cost to you). Thank you for supporting Genealogy Gems!

4 Comments

Damian Rave on June 4, 2019 at 3:45 pm

My name is Damian Rave, after attending a family reunion for William Brewster, in Portland, Oregon in 1987, I started conducting my family history, I was 12 yrs. old. Now, I am 44 yrs. old and still working on my family history, but continue to run into problems. I don’t have a very good filing system to keep track of all my research, I lose some of my research due to my lack of filing system, I can’t afford to get copies of birth certificates, death certificates, can’t find pictures of relatives, some of my family members are from Germany and more importantly none of my family members are really interested in genealogy…So, you can see my problems…Is there any resources that may assist me…Funds are an issue, most of my research is conducted on FamilySearch…
Kathleen Ward on June 5, 2019 at 8:38 pm

I use a binder for EACH surname. You should use dividers and keep sections for birth, marriage, and death records as well as census sheets relating to that particular ancestor’s household. Your public library probably has a library edition of ancestry.com which you can use to find the vital records you need for free. My solution, when I come across a vital record on familysearch.org or ancestry.com is to use the Windows Snipping Tool to capture an image of the record and save it to a flash drive. dedicated to my genealogy records. If I am at the library, I will print the image directly from the SNIP put my records in their binders when I get home. As a backup, use a flash drive dedicated to your genealogy research and create the needed folders on it before you start using it. On my flash drive I have folders for each ancestor I am researching (folders by surname), as well as separate folders for marriage, death, birth, divorce, deeds, wills, maps of places ancestors lived, histories of the places they lived. Hope this helps.
Cathy P Anderegg on June 7, 2019 at 6:35 pm

Thanks for all you do. We love it all! Sooo helpful!
Betty Heath on June 15, 2019 at 7:04 pm

In many towns, there are Family History Centers hosted by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints—the dame organization that hosts Family Search. At the libraries are computers with Ancestry and other websites for free. The church pays for group access.