WOW! I visited your site and this is great. I am the grand-daughter and great grand-daughter of coal miners. My family (and many other families) migrated from Pittsylvania County, VA and surrounding areas to West Virginia. We settled in Coopers/Bramwell, WV (Mercer County), which at the time had the greatest number of millionaires per capita in the entire US. The coal industry was BOOMING! Everyone in my family on my mother's side was a coal miner or drove a truck for the coal company or worked on the railroad thanks to the coal company. Our little village was owned by the Millcreek Coal and Coke Company. My grandfather worked at the Pocahantas Coal Mine in Bossevain (spelling, not sure) which a coal mine on the Virginia side. Mercer County WV borders VA. Our family has a lot of ties to the coal mines. My grandfather eventually died of black lung disease from the mines. I have more info that I can share. Let me get my files together and I will send you names of people and coal mines.
Good Luck in your endeavors.
April