Robert Williams - Coal Miner

Robert R. Williams
Born: January 4, 1855, Wales
Died: December 24, 1919, Scranton, Pennsylvania
Relation to Author: 2nd Great Grandfather (Nana / Betty Cheney's maternal grandfather)

Robert Williams - my Nana's grandfather - was born in Wales in 1855 and married Elizabeth Thomas at 23. They had three children in Wales before emigrating to the United States (separately - more on that in a future post) in the early 1880s. After they arrived in the U.S., they had more children. According to the 1910 census, he and Elizabeth had 12 children but only 7 survived and were alive in 1910. My great grandma Margaret Williams was born in 1887 in Pennsylvania.  

We understand that Robert was a miner in Wales and census records show that he was a coal miner in 1900 in the United States. Below is a picture of him in his mining clothes. We don't know what year it was taken, but he doesn't look young. He reported in the 1900 census that he was working as a coal miner at age 45. In the 1910 census he reported he was doing "company work" in the coal mines industry at age 55 and I wonder if this means at that time he was no longer in the mines and instead doing something easier or safer. 

Robert's wife Elizabeth Thomas (married name Williams - 1859 - 1934) has no occupation listed in the 1900, 1910 and 1920 censuses. 

Robert died in 1919 at the age of 64 from what looks to be chronic myocarditis (heart inflammation) and chronic pulmonary emphysema, which could have been caused by his work as a coal miner. 

Of course life was hard for many of our ancestors - and the further back we go, the harder and more dangerous it likely was. But mining always stands out to me as particularly hard and dangerous. People will do what they have to to survive and provide for their family, but I see no romance or glory in it. Only sadness at the hardship.