David, I have no idea if our families connect, but i am also chasing some Smith's from the Western NC areas. I will try to type what I know: My great grandmother was Sarah "Charlsey" (nee Taylor) who married Alford Graham Feb 12, 1896 in Monroe CO TN (this is just over the line of NC). Sarah's father was Baldwin/Bolden Harold Taylor who married a daughter of a woman who was known as "Aunt Sally Link/Smith or Granny Link/Smith. Her real name being Sarah (Smith-first husband) Lingenfelt/Lingerfelt (second husband)". She was born Dec 10, 1802. I can't quite make out her father's name on the death certificate. The last name looks like Nickerson or perhaps it starts with a "P". I can't tell. There is a write up of Aunt Sally Links obituary from the Knoxville McGee Library before she died around 1920 stating that she had lived to be 120 years old. She was first married to a Smith and lived around the Hanging Dog community in Cherokee County NC. She had by her first husband. Her daughter Margaret Smith was a registered midwife. She had traveled as far as Marion Ohio to deliver babies. She was 107 at the time of the article. The only other daughter listed was Catherine I think was my great grandmother Sarah's mother. Catherine died when Sarah was about 5 years old. The other names listed as her children are: Samuel, Roe, Frank, Marion and Henry. Granny LInk lived with her son Frank in Polk Co TN in some of her later years. Before that time she lived in Cherokee NC. In one census that I can't find at the moment....I believe it is Cherokee county, Samuel (grandson) is living with Margaret and is listed as an Indian. I have wondered if the Henry is the father of the Nimrod Jarrett SMith who was one of the Chiefs of the Cherokee. This email sounds confusing even to me...I'm sorry...but I noticed the similarities of the SMith, Henry Samuel and Sarah and also the CHerokee tie. Much of my other family from this same area go back to Union Co, so it wouldn't surprise me if this one did too.