thank you for info, but Patna meant nothing to me at first sight, i looked around and found Patna is a village in East Ayrshire, Scotland, straddling the traditional districts of Carrick and Kyle. It was established in 1802 by William Fullarton to provide housing for workers on the coalfields of his estate.Wikipedia
its 5 miles NE of Dalmellington
Have you check coal miners death records for his father, if he died or, injured etc it would be a sort of memorial, or perhaps they met when he was 18 or something like that. Or did father emigrate etc, or he got in contact with his son.
Coal mining is a dreadfully hard occupation despite comradeship, unless avoidable, which brings one back to we are all human, and lucky to be alive and hopefully learning something from our mistakes. I would be proud of being a relative of a miner. i learnt as a 65 year townie/city slicker, seventeen years ago, my relative in 1829 won a ploughing match, otherwise i would never have known what he did in life. Nowdays if i pass a partially plowed field, i look for the ploughman with respect.
