Iron Workers Project to build on information from families

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Iron Workers Project to build on information from families

Wednesday, August 11, 1999

If your ancestors were iron workers in the early to mid-1800s, Anne Kelly Knowles wants to talk to you.

Knowles, an author and political science professor from Wellesley College in Massachusetts, will be at the Carnegie museums and library today to gather information and explain the Iron Workers Project. The research project's purpose is to reconstruct the lives and migration of iron workers in Pittsburgh and other Pennsylvania towns from 1800 to 1865.

Before the age of steel, thousands of skilled and unskilled workers came here from England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland and other iron towns to work as puddlers, rollers, heaters, millwrights and other occupations. Mills were located in places such as Hazelwood, Birmingham (South Side), McKeesport, Homestead and Lawrenceville.

At 10 a.m. in the Carnegie Museums' Founder's Room, Knowles will meet with anyone whose ancestor worked in local mills during this period. From 1 to 5 p.m., she will be in the Pennsylvania Department on the second floor of Carnegie Library to discuss the project.

Knowles is working with the English/Welsh Interest Group of the

Western Pennsylvania Genealogical Society on the project. She plans to officially launch the survey at the society's Oct. 14 meeting.

For more information, call Margarette Evans at 412-279-5639.