This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Author: maryschacht Surnames: Powrie, McPhail Classification: queries Message Board URL: http://boards.rootsweb.com/localities.britisles.scotland.ans.general/5612.1.2.1.1.1.2.1.1/mb.ashx Message Board Post: My great grandfather was a hand loom weaver, and tried working in the Dundee Power mills, living in a one room apartment, like the tenement photo of Powrie Place. Like the one the Verdant Works, a working jute mill museum. http://www.rrsdiscovery.com/index.php?pageID=115 Ironically our surname (my maiden name)is Powrie. Robert Powrie couldn't stand the conditions so emigrated to Upper Canada, where he went back to working a hand loom, then a farmer. One of the advantages of leaving a country where he couldn't compete with power mills, to a place where his skills, in beginning settlements, were once again needed. He worked in the harvest on farms while he was in Errol, Perthshire, to make extra money, but that too was affected by moderization...but their was no mechanization, in frontier settlements. Old skills became needed skills. Jute can't be worked on a hand-loom as the fibers are so course, they break looms. It also couldn't be grown in Scotland (it comes from India), like flax for linen. It was imported from the Baltic region, but it was grown in Aberdeenshire after Napolean tried to block the Baltic, during the Napoleanic Wars. Important Note: The author of this message may not be subscribed to this list. If you would like to reply to them, please click on the Message Board URL link above and respond on the board.