Stan: You have just expressed the lament of family historians everywhere! My experience was similar to your own. My biological father was a miner. He discovered the Northwest on a trip,when he and my mother were young, and had three small children, and fell in love with the big trees, the streams, etc., and ultimately moved his family all the way out here. Within a year, he was killed in a road construction accident, and my dear mother left with three small ones and me on the way. It was war time, tires and gasoline were rationed, and my mother was alone for several years before she remarried. I never knew my paternal grandparents. Never heard their voices, never saw a picture for years, but my mother kept an image of them alive for me through oral history. Three years ago, at the age of 59, and being deeply involved in my family history project for myself and all of my family, I bit the bullet, and with help from family, my husband and I went on a "questing" trip to Oklahoma and Missouri. I would probably get kicked off the board for being so windy if I told you all about it, but just let me say that if you do something similar, you will never forget it as long as you live. It requires a little support from a spouse, if that applies, or you can go by yourself, but in my case, my husband supported it 100%, so was a blessing to have along. After a futile search that had lasted several hours, we were able to find the two story log cabin my grandparents built at Timber Hill (outside of Bluejacket)with the help of a stranger, who appeared out of nowhere, on one of the unpaved side roads. She knew exactly where it was. "Just follow me", she said. She was a local who had considered buying the property at one time, and knew a great deal about it. Six months later, she died of a heart attack at the age of 41. Providence? Divine intervention? An angel in disguise? I don't know, but she gave me a part of myself I would never have had otherwise. As we walked around the cabin, things I had heard about all of my life began to reveal themselves - the giant tree my siblings had played on as tiny children; the red rock fireplace at the end of the house where my grandmother used to sit and smoke her pipe, and let them throw tobacco in the fire to make colored flames, and where my mother had dropped her wedding ring through the cracks, and crawled under the house with a rake to find (by the fireplace), and even though it was starting to fall down around itself, I could picture all of the things I had heard about all of my life. Now I have a technicolor memory to last me, along with photographs of me there for my grandkids. There is nothing like it.. There are ways to find the places of your ancestors which you refer to. There are land records, local histories (very good sources!! Try the historical society for the area), and so forth. Of course the trees are bigger, and if it was in a city, probably a freeway over it, but there are still historic photos that show the kind of area your family was in. You might even be able to find the remains of one of the cabins. I am just amazed at how well some of them have survived, particularly if the bark was removed (not such a happy home for bugs, which destroy the wood). It if were not so, there would not be so many log cabins which preservation societies have moved from outlying places to pre determined locations. I really think you should try to find some of those places. If they were Native American (ie, as in Cherokee), there are a number of books and government records, which can be very helpful, such as the rolls, censuses, etc.which most of us are aware of, but also books like, "Our People, and Where They Rest" for the Cherokees, and probably others that are similar for the other tribes. If they were from Western NC, I have done lots of research there. I just encourage you to realize how much you can glean from sources other than the obvious, like family, and it will be a journey you will never forget.. I have had to do it myself, as I only had one grandparent that I had for any length of time, and all were gone by the time I was about 15 myself. Let me know if I can help..