Sign up for the Family Tree Newsletter! Plus, you’ll receive our 10 Essential Genealogy Research Forms PDF as a special thank you.
Get Your Free Genealogy Forms
"*" indicates required fields
Q. Supposedly my grandfather worked on Hoover Dam with his brother. How can I research this?
A. Nevada’s Hoover Dam (once known as Boulder Dam) was built during the 1930s, a time when many Americans found themselves out of work because of the Great Depression. According to the Boulder City/Hoover Dam Museum <www.bcmha.org> in Boulder City, Nev., “The Boulder Canyon Project was one of the few places in the country where men could find jobs, and thousands of workers migrated to southern Nevada hoping to find work and keep their families together.”
You’re in luck if you have ancestors who were part of the construction. Historian Judy Irons has been compiling information on those men for four years, searching “records of museums, churches and social organizations throughout the West” and scanning thousands of newspapers and books. Her research will culminate in a fully documented genealogical reference book honoring Boulder Canyon Project pioneers. She plans to include not just the names of workers but information about their wives, children and extended family members, and information about their jobs. Go to the Boulder City/Hoover Dam Museum website’s reference page to contact Irons <www.bcmha.org/reference.html>.
From the May 2010 Family Tree Magazine
ADVERTISEMENT
