>Looking for any information re gggrandfather William HANDLEY b.c1835, >Glasgow and his wife Mary (nee HOLMES) b.c1838. They were some of the last >hand loom weavers in Kirkintilloch in late 1800's and early 1900's. Hi, Marilyn, I've been gone for a week and so am just now catching up on list mail -- so your request is several days old. While I don't have anything on your HANDLEY folks, when I was in Kirkintilloch last August I picked up at the Tourist Information Office a booklet called, "Kirkintilloch, Life & Times" by Sue Selwyn and Don Martin, published 1994 by Strathkelvin District Library & Museums Dept., and they have an address to obtain a copy at Strathkelvin District Libraries, 2 West High St., Kirkintolloch G66 1AD. It's 64 pages with a lot of photos. One page is given to the weaving trace, with a couple of photos looking like early 1900. It says, "For a long period of time the weaving of cloth was the principal industry in Kirkintilloch. During the eighteenth century most of the locla weavers prepared linen cloth, but by the early nineteenth century there had been a widespread move to cotton, and a specific roduct, kown as "lappet muslins" (muslins with raised floral decoration) was very much a specialty of Kirkintolloch. Family weaving shops usually included several looms, and children were taught to weave by the time they were 10 or 12 years of age. . . . by 1840 the local weaving population had risen to about 2,000. . . ." Photos of the insides of two mills. In the section on housing, it shows the weaver's houses where they lived above and had looms below, and the drawings to convert the first floors to living quarters after the weaving occupation began to dwindle after the 1900's. As your folks were here about this time, you might want to purchase the publication as it has lots of photographs of the period -- school classes, church picnics, bands, etc. The rotten thing, though, is that names are not given so you either need to know what your folks looked like, or have the year and place matching (and hope they weren't out sick that day!). As for a price, I don't see it anywhere. Can't be too expensive. Looks like what UK, NZ and AU call A4 size -- in the US we use 8.5" x 11" and this is a bit longer, about 8.5" X 11.5". 64 pages, paperback. Happy hunting! Dibby __________________________ Dibby Allan Green Santa Barbara, California <green@taxlawsb.com>