Thank you William Shepherd for the bibliography. I will try to locate some of the works you mentioned. I am descended from a long line of coal miners in Ayrshire. It appears that a family of Strachan men came to Ayrshire around 1700 to work in the mines and possibly started out in either Irvine or Muirkirk. I've no idea where they came from, except for knowing that Strachan is an Aberdeenshire or Kincardineshire name. During the 18th and 19th centuries they moved around Ayshire quite a lot, following the mines. Then in the early 1900s my branch of Strachans moved to Cambuslang in Ayshire. I was wondering whether there are any records available that name the employees of particular mines. Does anyone know if such records exist? By the way, the novel 'Docherty' by William McIlvanney is a wonderful description of coal miners' lives. It's set in Kilmarnock in the early 1900s. Regards Judy Strachan researching the coal mining families of STRACHAN, McCRAE, HADDOW, McINAIRNEY, MARSHALL, HAGGERTY, NEILSON, ALEXANDER, PATRICK