Hi Noeline: I read the other threads you started but will put all the information about all of them in this thread.
All of the places mentioned in your threads--Roscoe, Stockdale, Coal Center, California, and Long Branch--are close to one another. The town of Smithton, where one of the Walker boys lived is about 30 minutes' drive away.
You can see a map with all of these places on it if you go here:
http://www.rootschat.com/links/0ej2/ The map will be centered on Long Branch, with How Cemetery just below it.
Click on Bird's Eye View and make sure the box Show Labels is checked. Click on the little blue arrow on near the middle of the screen. That will widen the viewing area on the map. Then zoom out one click and you'll see all of the other places.
When your relatives emigrated to Roscoe, Washington County in the 1890s, the area was all farming, as a lot of it still is today. Work might also have been found--as Oliver Walker found it--in the many, many coal mines in the area.
The river that all these places is on is called the Monongahela River. Further down river (to the right on the map) steel mills began to be built in the early 1900s from Allenport, just above Roscoe, all the way to Pittsburgh, fifty miles away. Most of those are not gone, though the Allenport mill is still hanging on.
I can't tell you what Roscoe and the other places were like when your relatives first got there. But with the heavy industry gone, the area has lost a lot of population. Today Roscoe is a sleepy town with small businesses. There is a state university at California, which provides some employment.
Any marriage records--to trace the marriages of the Walker daughters (and sons)--would be in Washington County's main town, which is called Washington, after the first U.S. president. George Washington was a landowner in the northwestern part of the county and in Fayette County, which is across the river from Washington County, even though he lived in Virginia.
Before 1906, birth and death records were held by the county or the family's church. After 1906, birth and death records were held by the State of Pennsylvania.
Hope this helps.
Regards,
John
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