Did your ancestors live in a “company town”? If so, their occupational records could reveal more than just a few genealogical tidbits. For people in towns such as those run by the Stearns Coal & Lumber Co. in south-central Kentucky, their jobs really were their lives. The Stearns towns — comprising schools, churches and stores built by the company beginning in 1902 — provide a rare surviving glimpse into that way of life, in part because the Blue Heron coal-mining town lies within Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area <www.nps.gov/biso>.

You can ride the Big South Fork Scenic Railway <www.bsfsry.com>, as your coal-mining ancestors would have, from the tiny town of Stearns to the Barthell Coal Mining Camp. The first of 18 Stearns company towns and once home to 350 people, Barthell has been privately restored to show the history of coal mining. You even can spend the night in a reconstructed “company house” — with modern conveniences inside <www.barthellcoalcamp.com>.