Lineage

I was told by my parents that my great grandparents were some of the first white settlers in the North Carolina area and that we had some Cherokee in us. I cannot seem to find records for either of these statements and I have been searching for years.
My parents were John and Barbara (Lowe) Watkins. My dads parents were John Sr. and Golda May Parker. My mom’s parents were John and Ruth (Carden) Lowe . I have been using Ancestry.com to do my research and have several generations back but I can’t seem to find any truth to these stories. So, any help would be greatly appreciated.