Mary,

Frank Matish is listed as a fatality at the 1968NOV20, Farmington, WV, Consolidated No.9 mine disaster, see
http://www.google.com/#hl=en&sugexp=ldymls&xhr=t&...

or just do a Google search for Consolidated No.9 Disaster

The MSHA library has a fatality archive database of accident investigation files for the United States mining industry:

http://www.msha.gov/TRAINING/LIBRARY/FatalRecordsSearch.asp

As of April 2004, there were 23,500 reports in this database with 32,767 names, but the collection is expanded on a regular basis. Most of the fatalities are after 1970. Nationally the database appears to list about 25% of all reported fatal accidents. By knowing the “Location of Archive Report” one can obtain a copy of the official federal report. The official federal reports are much more lengthy and detailed than the reports found in the state annual reports. When the web site comes up, click search on two occasions. If entering only a date, type it as mm/dd/yr, and fill in as few boxes as possible. Try both the “Search” and “Browse” buttons. By clicking on any blue items from the search results, you can get things to come up.
Just type in the name MATISH only.

Source: In 1998 (Reprinted 2001), the Mine Safety and Health Administration published a three volume index, Historical Summary of Mine Disasters in the United States:

Volume II - Coal Mines - 1959 - 1998, 137 pages

These publications contain listings of both fatal and nonfatal accidents by date, name and type of mine, location, number killed or injured, and nature of the accident. Names of miners are not provided. However for the fatal accidents, there usually is provided a summary from the official federal accident report. These books usually only cover major fatal accidents claiming three or more lives and do not cover most nonfatal accidents. These books were initially issued as nine microfiches and are available at large libraries in the Government Publication Reference section under Call Number L 38.2:H 62/SUM./V.1-3.

Details and diagrams of The Consolidated No.9 mine disaster are located in Volume 2, Section 1 pages 9-10 and in Section 4 pages 51-55. If you can not find this reference at a library, I could send it to you if you sent me a SASE and $2.

I have no specific information on Frank Matish except what is posted on the Internet.

from Jerry Sherard
429 S Moore St.
Lakewood, CO 80226-2629