Hi, My name is Cyndee Benamati Crockard. I research the Benamati surname - Malcesine, Lake Garda, Italy.

My grandfather emmigrated to US in 1914 and settled in my coal mining hometown of Mather, PA

I have just launched a web site on the town and the mine explosion / disaster that occurred there on May 19, 1928.
It was / is the 2nd largest disaster in PA coal mining history and the 6th largest in the nation with 196 fatalities. Many of those killed were immigrants.

One of the saddest stories, documented in the book "The Mather Mine Disaster", (presently being added to the website), and also by the names listed on the memorial as those who died, is that of the husband and wife from Grays Landing, PA who lost all four of their sons. Their sons had all started work at the mine just that week, one having reported for his first day of work the day of the explosion. The names of the four Bootz brothers were Andy, Paul, Sam, and John. There is also an Andy Budz listed which I see is a variation in spelling. No ages are known , nor their marital status. The book does say that the parents were elderly - but is not specific to their age.

To see the names as listed on the granite memorial, dedicated in 2002, and on the E-memorial, the link to the homepage is as follows.

http://www.geocities.com/mathercoalpa

Click on the link above or type into the URL address bar and hit enter. This site has not indexed into Search Engines yet because I launched it only a week ago.

My original idea for the site was to get the information about the mine disaster and the names of those who died online for geneological purposes.
I hope that someone will find a missing link in their Bootz/Butz/Budz family line and then these four brothers will not be forgotten. Or if you have these people in your family tree, you may like the documentation provided.

Good Luck in your search.

If you have time to look at the E-memorial, feel free to sign the guest book as a way of me knowing that someone had interest in the information.

Thanks, hope it helps someone,
Cyndee Benamati Crockard