Appalachia
My grandparents were born and lived their lives in West Virginia. My grandfather, Elbert Momen Patterson (1901-1985), was a coal miner in Meadow Bridge, West Virginia where he started working in the mines when he was a teenager. My grandmother, Ellen Elizabeth Bland (Ella), raised three children there.
I grew up in Radford, Virginia in the New River Valley about two hours from my grandparents' home where we frequently visited.
My mother and grandmother
Joan Patterson Keller
& Ellen Elizabeth Bland Patterson
I am interested in the region, its history, and the history of coal mining and the labor movement.
For those interested in family pictures of the Pattersons, Gwinns, Blands, or Forrens, I will try to get some more pictures scanned in soon.