Birth Certificates: Copper Mining Connections between Utah and Africa

While working on older birth certificates, I happened to notice an unusual residence of both parents in one from 1923: “Kambove Katanga Kongo Belgian Africa.” Normally, I’d expect parents to reside in the same place as the birth of the child. However, Mack Donald Sullivan, the son of Eugene and Lora Sullivan, was born in Salt Lake City on August

This blog post was written by Jack Tingey, a 2023 Intern at the Utah State Archives and Records Service. Jack graduated from BYU with a BA in history and an emphasis on 19th century American history. On May 1, 1900, International Workers Day, Utah State Coal Mine Inspector Gomer Thomas searched through the wreckage of the Winter Quarters No. 4 Mine,

My macabre curiosity always gets the best of me, and I couldn’t help but thumb through the pages of the Huntington City Register of Deaths, a compilation of death certificates, local duplicates of the official records that get filed with the state.  They came to the State Archives during a transfer of records from Huntington City. I read each page,

On March 8, 1924, explosions within a Castle Gate coal mine changed the lives of over one hundred families in Carbon County, UT. A headlamp ignited methane gas, which in turn incinerated airborne coal dust and caused an explosive chain reaction killing 172 men. There were no survivors. The disaster left 110 widows with 264 dependent children. The Red Cross