I understand you completely when you try to sort out who was related to whom. In Kilbarchan that meant everybody.
The village is/was quite small and almost everyone was involved or connected with weaving, whether it was the bleaching of cotton for dying and spinning or beaming warps (forget Scottie and Startrek
) or transporting finished bolts to the buyers in Paisley, it all contributed to the village industry.They were very jealous of their profitable trade and went to great lengths to prevent outsiders from coming into the village, so many marriages were between one family and their neighbours offspring. Since they all had large families there were lots of families of the same name who, of course, followed the traditional naming patterns so every male had a wheen of children all called exactly the same initially as his brothers children. Only the later ones give a clue as to their parentage - Sometimes the grandparents had been named using the relatively small pool of fore-names so that is no help in tracing families either.
After the 1840's second, and later sons, can often be found marrying outside the village as the weaving industry became more mechanised and centred on Paisley or the Calton in Glasgow which is why you find records from the Middle or Low Church in Paisley in the 1860's and Glasgow in the 1880's.
Weaving history is fascinating and to live within the results of it just enhances the feeling (I'm an incomer to the village but have only stayed here for 40 years so ) Original village families are still proud of their heritage and fiercely protect the village.
Russell
)