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Restored Vietnam ‘Huey’ helicopter visiting Hazleton Airport on Saturday

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Review: Lyle Lovett and his Large Band provide great night out

<p>Genealogists looking up their Luzerne County coal mining ancestors should soon have another handy tool at their disposal, thanks to the Northeast Pennsylvania Genealogical Society and its volunteers.</p><p>There is a project in the works to digitize miners&#8217; certifications from the early 20th century. The certificate enabled a man to work in the area&#8217;s coal mines. Heading up the project is Anthony Paddock, a volunteer with the society and guide with the Lackawanna County Coal Mine Tour.</p><p>To get the certificate, the applicant had to present experience and answer vital questions in English, the society notes in its summer newsletter.</p><p>What kind of information are we talking about, and where will it be found?</p><p>&#8220;Once the miner met all the requirements, entered into the (registration) book was the miner&#8217;s name, certificate number, age, height, weight, color of eyes and hair, nationality, residence, along with the date tested and remarks,&#8221; the newsletter says.</p><p>It&#8217;s apparent that the certification process could prove valuable to descendants of the miners by corroborating or adding information about the mining ancestor. With many thousands of men having worked in the mines in our area, this digitization will be a boon to a lot of people looking up forebears.</p><p>First up will be digitizing of the registration books from 1910-1914. No date has been given for completion of the project.</p><p><strong>Historical Society News:</strong> Big changes are on the way to the venerable Luzerne County Historical Society including, as appears likely, a move to new quarters.</p><p>Executive Director Aimee Newell, writing in the July 29 edition of the American Association for State and Local History blog, outlined the strategic plan the Wilkes-Barre-based organization is developing after working with that association and other planners.</p><p>The resulting report, she writes, &#8220;helped board and staff see the urgency of the need for a combined museum and library building, rather than our current pair of structures, neither of which is meeting our needs or our goals.&#8221;</p><p>The Historical Society is a primary stop for area people (and out-of-area people) researching their local ancestors as well as for those seeking historical material of all kinds. In recent years the society has not only expanded its holdings but has offered many discussions, tours and other events for the community, as well as presentations themed to children.</p><p>While the society owns various properties, the two buildings referred to above are the Bishop Memorial Library and the society museum, a few doors away from one another on South Franklin Street. Both buildings date from the 19th century and &#8212; besides being separate &#8212; have long had space issues.</p><p>Additionally, the society owns and operates the Swetland Homestead and the Denison House, both on the West Side, where costumed guides and reenactors take visitors on tours.</p><p>The report also addresses the importance of continued repairs and the proper conditions for storage of artifacts. No definite time line is given for the changes.</p><p>The society was formed in 1858 as the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society and bills itself as the oldest county historical society in Pennsylvania.</p><p><strong>News Notes: </strong>FamilySearch, the huge, free online data base, relies heavily on volunteers to do its indexing. A recent release asks users to visit <a href="http://www.FamilySearch.org/indexing" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">www.FamilySearch.org/indexing</a> to learn about the process and explore helping as an indexing volunteer. Every month FamilySearch brings out hundreds of thousands of new pages of genealogical material from all over the world. It is a project of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Tom Mooney Out on a Limb </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/web1_TOM_MOONEY.jpg</photo0><caption0>Tom Mooney Out on a Limb </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>Tom Mooney</p><p>Out on a Limb</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Tom Mooney is a Times Leader genealogy columnist. Reach him at tommooney42@gmail.com.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Out On a Limb: Miners’ certificates may yield info on ancestors