Pursuant to an act of the PA Assembly, dated 5-9-1889, every anthracite miner had to be certified following a short twelve question test. After sucessful completion, the miner received his anthracite miners certificate. I have viewed a few of these and noticed that they were numbered. I was wondering if there is a central repository of the names of all miners who attained this certification and if so,where it is located and how it might be accessed.

Thanks for your help.

With reference to The Anthracite Miners Certification Act, I continue to work on my families history following their arrival from England in 1883. They settled in the Scranton area and continued their occupation as miners. As such, they undoubtly obtained certification and I had wanted to obtain, if possible, a duplicate miners certificate for my files. I learned , in a call to the Bureau of Mine Safety, Anthracite Region, that these tests were administered by local boards within the counties that the coal mines operated and often at a board members home. Unfortunately it was noted that most of these records no longer exist today. They mentioned they had some county records going back to the late1980's; but no central data base.
Thanks to those who viewed the post and I guess this answers my question.

reading anthracite has a ton of company employee records still. they have them all back to the 1800s. also in olyphant there is the geneology socioty. they have a ton of personel records from the northern field. if this helps at all, i know both companies very well.

chris

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Hello All! My Name is Keith Woodworth & I have my Grandfather's Mining Certificate from the Hudson Colliery in Jermyn,Pa & it is dated., June 5 1918 & was issued at Carbondale. The Number in the upper left corner is # 30 & according to my Aunt( My Grandfather's Daughter) He enrolled with the International Correspondence School in Scranton & studied to be a Foreman & he passed an exam for that as well. He worked & lived in Jermyn all his life & started at the Hudson Colleiry when he was 14 years old. All he had was a 7th Grade education. However, He did well in life & was fortunate to never get maimed or killed in the mines. Chris- How are you doing? When I was in Jermyn in the summer of 2003 you showed me your Motor Mine Car in Lake Ariel & your Airplane also. Hope all is well for you. Would like to go on one of your mine tours someday when in Jermyn Visiting Friends & Relatives. Take Care.........Keith Woodworth

Hey keith, whats new. glad you signed up. do you have any photos of the jermyn colliery? that was a unique colliery for the hudson coal co, as they used 28 inch gauge rail equipment there and every single other colliery was 30 inch. i could never figure this out as to why they did this. if you have any pictures email them to me and i will post them up. thanks

chris

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Hello Chris! Actually I do have some photo's of the Colliery that I got from a Friend in Jermyn by the Name of Walter Avery. Anyway, I have some that show the Colliery during the Flood of 1942 & a couple of others that I've got also including a photo of one of John Jermyn's early mines in Jermyn? Anyway, Send me your snail mail address & I'll send copies of them for you to post here as I've no Scanner to send photos over to your website & I'll send a copy of my Grandfathers Mining Certificate also. Good to hear from you also. Take Care..........Keith