Drop Spindles in New France

Dipping into Selected Canadian Spinning Wheels again produced this:

Drop spindles in Canada are mainly of European origin. Spindles brought here by settlers from the British Isles are usually equipped with a spindle whorl whereas drop spindles in the French tradition often lack the whorl and instead are shaped to expand towards the lower end. (p. 39)

I am the product of both types of settlers (colonists in New France and Upper Canada*). I wonder, what were my ancestors' spindles like, and how many generations back would I have to go to find someone who spun on one, with or without a whorl?

Notice that the passage specifies drop spindles. There are other types of spindles. For example, a few pages later the book lists rolled spindles as common to Canadian settlers of Ukrainian descent.


*I'm also descended from Barr colonists. Though I doubt they put spindles in their baggage, I am not ruling out the possibility. I am from Vancouver Island and I know better than to make assumptions. What was it Jack Hodgins wrote, Vancouver Island is "littered with failed utopias"?

Depictions of colonies on map are approximate and not to scale, and the colonies' existences span a few hundred years.