Water - we cannot live without it, yet it has been the cause of death for at least three of the people in my family tree who suffered death by drowning. My 2 x great uncle, David Johnston, was a coalminer in Lanarkshire, like many of my family in the past two hundred years. By 1867, he had risen to the position of overman in the Windyedge Pit in Motherwell. An 'overman' ( or overlooker) was usually the 3rd in charge, tasked with overseeing the safe operation of the mine. He would visit the underground workings, record reports and generally manage production underground. The 3rd of June 1867 would have started out as a normal working day for him, but by 11 a.m. that morning, he would have been declared dead,along with one other miner, in an accidental drowning in a mineshaft. The following report is from the Scottish Mining website, where it gives details on mining deaths: David Johnston, dead at 51, through no fault of his own, just doing his job. Mining was, of course...
My ancestors, their stories and my genealogical journey