According to my grandmother, my grandfather was a direct decendent of Wade Hampton. What I know about my grandfathers past is this - my great grandfather was a millionaire and lost all the "family money" during the stock market crash - the family owned several large plantations in SC,TN. This apparently was a secret from the grandkids, because of the shame apparent slave ownership. According to records she has, from my grandfathers items, either his great grandfather was Wade Hampton or he was his great uncle?? details are not completely clear to me.

I have no idea where to even begin searching for a Wade Hampton family tree that I can work backwards from. My grandmother is positive about this information, based on conversations with my grandfather and his father that our family was originally from SC and then later NC with some Cherokee ties also. I have just started looking deeper into my family tree and am interested in learning a little more.

Any advice on where to even continue my search?

Thanks for any idea's - Michelle