Penn State Special Collections has 10+ UMWA national/international-level office records and the AFL-CIO national/Pennsylvania office records. These records mainly focus on the the national and international level of the organization and most often do not deal with individual worker records. Sometimes individual worker information can be found, but it is usually part of grievance documentation or if the individual served at the District/Regional/National level of leadership for these two organizations.

Individual worker records are usually the domain of the employer, and union membership records would be at the local level for non-officer records, all of which may not be housed in our archives. We recommend that genealogical researchers check with historical societies and local/State archives where your relative lived or worked, the local or district UMWA unions where they held membership, and commercial or mine employer archives. Unfortunately, we are unable to serve remote research requests for materials outside of our collections, but if you do a keyword search of our finding aids for your relative's name or local union and find materials, we are happy to help you in your research!