Perhaps you have a family story of an ancestor who was a patriot in the Revolutionary War. How do you know if this tale is true? Complete your family history one generation at a time—tracing all lines—moving from the present to the past. If you have a male ancestor living in the American colonies by 1775–1776 and he was born between 1735 and 1760, he may have served. Learn More

Readers Respond

Daniel J. F. Lupia, Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania: My great-grandparents were married in southern Italy in 1920. Shortly after their first child was born in 1921, my great-grandfather Giuseppe Lupia immigrated to Pennsylvania's coal country. After working in the mines for seven years, Giuseppe returned to Scigliano, Italy, in 1928 and had seven more children with his wife, Albina Pane. Giuseppe passed away in 1945 from coal workers' pneumoconiosis—also known as black lung disease.

Michelle DeStefano, Londonderry, New Hampshire: My dad served in the US Air Force back in the 1970s and early 1980s. He worked underground testing and repairing missiles in Arkansas missile silos as part of a Cold War initiative. He was originally slated to work when the Titan II missile exploded back in 1980, but fortunately he was on leave. As a child I was captivated by his stories; as an adult I realize how difficult it must have been to do that job. 

Daniel Zajdel, Boothbay, Maine: In the 1910s, my grandfather John Zajdel mined coal for industrialist Henry Clay Frick in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. When a roof collapsed, a portion of John’s skull was crushed. A surgeon placed a small steel plate in the back of his skull, and he was able to live a full life. After the accident, my grandmother Katherine threatened to leave John if he didn't quit mining coal. The family traveled to Pittsburgh, where John found somewhat safer employment with a steel company. I vividly remember seeing the outline of the plate on my grandfather’s head when I was a child.

Laurie Hollingsworth Sisson, Alexandria, Virginia: My grandfather Clarence “Holly the Tailor” Hollingsworth ran a dry-cleaning business during the Great Depression. He worked in an underground room with a trap door. To keep fumes from building up, he paid a man to sit near the trap door and keep it open. One day, the man left his post and Grandpa's workshop exploded. Grandpa was fortunate to escape—minus his eyebrows, which grew back.

Linda Sands, Collingswood, New Jersey: My husband’s great-grandfather Matts Sands (Sandkulla) (1852–1925) emigrated from Finland to Canada to Niehart, Montana. There he worked in the Silver Dyke Mine, a small mine that produced primarily tungsten and silver. Matts died in a gas leak in the mine in 1925. According to the local paper, he was found sitting in a chair with his pipe in his hand in one of the mine’s chambers.