My family came south through North Carolina also and then South Carolina, Georgia, and into Bama. One side has a family home (built in 1800s) still standing in South Carolina in a town named after that side of family...maternal side was Scots men who married Dutch women. Paternal side goes back supposedly to Mayflower (Alden) and further back to the Sinclairs of Rosslyn Chapel fame. I’ve always thought it interesting that Oak Island has someone with my paternal name on it and they could also have connection to Sinclair...but it’s looking like Oak Island may turn out to be pirate treasure and not Knights Templar after all. I’m rambling...sry.
Really great story. Hope you got a whole heap of that pirate treasure.