If your people sat in the central Piedmont, start with these two hubs before random database hopping:

• Guilford — Revolutionary geography (Guilford Courthouse), Quaker and other church networks, Greensboro/High Point industrial decades.
• Forsyth — Moravian Wachovia record culture plus Winston-Salem industrial sources; parent Stokes for early events.

Method guides: church, military, census. Print the starter checklist and work one county per week.