For about 18 years I've enjoyed researching my family history to find out who they were, where they lived, and what type of people they might have been.  The "who" and "where" are fairly easy to discover, but usually aren't that exciting.  However, learning what type of people they were is just the opposite -- much more difficult, but much more interesting.

My Duncans lived in southern Virginia until 1926 when they moved to Wilkes Co, NC.  (Let's just say it had something to do with the Revenuers closing in on my great grandfather.)  In the area of Carroll and Floyd Counties, there are Duncans everywhere because they've lived there since the Revolutionary War.  My great-great-great-grandfather John Henry Duncan, Jr. lived in northern Carroll Co near the Floyd Co line in a community known as Deepwater.  (That was the name of the creek that ran through the mountains.)  John was born in 1836 and married in 1858.  Judging by census records, I suspect they lived on land that her father gave them.  However, in 1887 John's father-in-law was getting older, and thought it was best to formally deed John 150 acres along "Deep Water Creek" and "Greasy Creek".

John and his wife Millie had nine children with seven of them living to adulthood.  From stories I've heard from relatives and records I've found in archives, his children lived very near him.  Census records list them almost consecutively suggesting that they each lived on land deeded to them by their father, John. 

When John died in 1902, he was buried up on a hill not far from his house.  A few years ago a 97 year old cousin told me that John had told his family that when he died he wanted to be buried up on the hill under the apple tree, and so he was.  Several of his children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren would also be buried there.

Pictures show John and Millie, the house they lived in which is still used today, and a Google Earth image approximating their 150 acres.