Try looking at County websites for information on your last known relative. Many counties have geneology pages for asking and answering questions about family lines.
My father was the youngest of seventeen in a blended family. I had a little information about his aunts, uncles, and cousins, parents and grandparents, but not much more. But descendents of his cousins, aunts, and uncles began to contact me and they had incredible amounts of information that they had researched themselves.
On my father’s side, I am an eleventh generation Southerner. One of the early generations served in the House of Burgesses a hundred years before George Washington. The 9th generation, my grandfather, was a soldier in the Civil War and a prisoner of war at Fort Douglas in Chicago.
If you are from North Carolina, some of my ancestors that married into this line are the Brevards. Also my GGGGG Grandfather in N.C. had his Commission signed by John Hancock. I have a copy of it. (It’s been photocopied too many times.)
On my mother’s side we got lucky in that one rascal was reasonably well known in the 1920s and 1930s. He travelled all over the world writing adventure books (some for children, some for adults) and then giving lectures. He could tell a good story. Eventually he pushed his luck to far and was lost at sea on a rickity craft. (I’m leaving his name out for a reason.)
His father was proud of his accomplishments and had a little money himself. He decided in the Fifties to have the family geneology fully researched. The geneologist’s job was made easier because one of Sir Walter Scott’s relatives was a member of this same family and Scott had taken an interest and kept careful records. So, my mother’s family is traced back to 1066 to an Anglo Saxon named Tructe. The list also throws in a certain King of Scotland (who had no legitimate children) and, more importantly, Robert the Bruce.
My Scottish ancestors didn’t come to American until 1742 when there was a lot of unpleasantness going on high and low. Three brothers escaped. My line is traced from one of those three brothers and included the adventurer-writer. My aunt had his typewriter – a gift from his mother – until just before her death a couple of years ago. Since I have been the writer in the family, I was hoping that she would pass it on to me. Nope, she passed it on to one of my male cousins who “carries on the name.” We women get the short shift. Sadly, my male cousin has never heard of the guy. (shrug)
I’ve left off his name because there is one more cousin who became the money bags in the family. Rich beyond your wildest dreams. He was closer to my Grandaddy’s age. I don’t know if they ever met. They were about forty miles apart. He started out dirt poor like everyone else in the family and was a bright and decent guy. He’s deceased now. But one of the companies he founded is considered a dirty word by many, myself included.
And there’s a third writer in my mother’s family, but not in the same line. He was never well known, but he was on the fringes of the Fugitives at Vanderbilt. When I located one of his books, I had to pay $300 for it. He also taught my mother how to play a lot of things on the piano in the Thirties. She taught them to me. I can play some weird tunes on the keyboard.
Maybe someday in the future, people will be able to dial up a date and see what their ancestors were really like by just “watching” them in action in the past. I guess there are advantages to not having children.