John Gillies' Chestnut Hill roots run deep. The 64-year-old can trace his family back five generations. But when he began exploring his German ancestry, Gillies had no idea his research would connect so many threads.

Gillies' family has a rich textile history. His great-grandfather, James Gavin Speck, owned a successful carpet design studio in Germantown in 1900. "My mother, who died when I was young, had spoken fondly of her grandfather and his artistic talents," Gillies said. "Her affection made me want to discover more."

During a family reunion last year in North Wales, other Speck family members helped fill in important gaps. Gillies tracked J.G. Speck's carpet designs to Jefferson University's Gutman library, which holds about 40 of his hand-painted "point papers."

Speck specialized in ingrain carpet designs, selling to companies like Ivins Dietz and Metzger in Philadelphia and other manufacturers from New York to Boston. He designed the carpet for the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and registered numerous patents from 1885 to 1920, during Philadelphia's manufacturing peak.

Gillies' research led him to discover that the first Speck who came to Philadelphia in 1805 was a master weaver. He carried a manuscript written in 1723 in Wittgenstein, Prussia. This document, known as the Speck Manuscript, is now held in the Philadelphia Museum of Art's rare book section.

Senior Curator of Costume and Textiles Dilys Blum said the manuscript came into the possession of a Wistar family member, who donated it to the museum. The Wister/Wistar family, after whom Wister Street in Germantown is named, is one of Philadelphia's oldest families.

"The real story is how the Speck Manuscript came into the hands of Caspar Wistar," Gillies said. "Mrs. Henry Leach, born Agnes Lisle Brown, a contemporary of Eleanor Roosevelt and advocate for women's rights, donated it to the museum as a descendant of Caspar Wistar."

In 1994, industrial designer Rebecca Collins self-published a two-volume book on manuscript creator Johann Ludwig Speck. Only about 200 copies were printed, featuring hand-sewn binding and letterpress-printed covers.

"I worked with permission from the Philadelphia Museum of Art to reproduce each of the patterns in the Speck Manuscript," Collins said. "I also worked out threading for each of the 84 patterns and conducted biographical research on the Speck family."

Gillies, who grew up in Chestnut Hill, graduated from La Salle College High School in Wyndmoor and Harvard University with a degree in English literature. He retired after 25 years with the United Nations Trade Developing Countries Export, which enabled him to visit 40 countries. He now lives in Switzerland.

"My dad's brother's family lived on Durham Street in Mt. Airy," he said. "My dad, Bill Gillies, was a Philadelphia fireman. His brother, Charles, was a Philly cop. My dad worked on Engine 37 on Highland Avenue, and my dad and granddad grew up across the street from the firehouse."

Gillies plans to travel to Bad Laasphe, Germany, later this year to meet with local historians and Wistar family members "to understand the link between Speck and the wider German community in Philadelphia."

For more information, email seegillies@hotmail.com.

Len Lear can be reached at lenlear@chestnuthilllocal.com.