The purpose of the above association is to preserve, promote and study remnants of the historic Trading Path of the Southeastern Piedmont. To quote from thier website at http://www.tradingpath.org/: "The Trading Path was a transportation corridor defined by river crossings connected to one another by trails. In colonial times it linked the James River colonial settlements to the Catawba and Cherokee towns in the Carolinas and Georgia. It served Indian commerce prior to European colonization, and it served as one of the principle avenues for European penetration of the Piedmont of the Southeastern United States." There is an excellent 'White Paper' on the site that gives the history of The Trading Path. This will give you some insight on how our ancestors 'settled' this part of North Carolina. Larry Noah - larmil-1@att.net My family is at- http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~lrnoah/ Also websites for mailing lists NCOrange-L, BrickChurchNC-L, NOAH-L and BEARSE-L.