Kitchen, it sounds like you need a new attorney! :-) If you're a small landowner looking for help, and your attorney is acting as an enterprising middle man, farming work out every which direction and charging a fee on top of it, then I'd fire his ass and get a new attorney. An attorney, surveyor or land man, in a situation like this, if they are the "project lead," should (1) figure out a general plan as to what needs to be done to understand the title to this tract of land (survey and/or records research), (2) hire that specific help and nothing else, not charging you a fee on top of their fee, and then (3) get an attorney to review that summary and develop a plan forward... which may just be a few simple documents, affidavits, or quitclaims.
The surveyor can help you figure out where the property lies in relation to other parcels and in relation to older surveys; and that may open up who used to own that property, or who currently owns the property. But they can't help you with your main objectives: understanding the chain of title, and render legal advice as to how to cure that title into your name, and (unless they are a landman also) can't help you figure out where the title documents broke off into a different direction from your survey / use / possession.
A landman can help figure out where the title documents went haywire, and can help you do some research to figure out the "theoretical" successors or assigns of the parties that used to own the lot. But they can't help you with your main objectives: render legal advice as to how to cure that title into your name, and (unless they are a surveyor also), can't help you reconcile actual property use and physical boundaries with the surveys, both new and old.
An attorney can look at the title history, including the predecessors in interest, the various conveyances, and the sufficiencies of the legal descriptions, and render legal advice as to how to cure these issues. However, he isn't going to go out to the property to do a survey, and (unless you want to waste money), isn't going to go out to the courthouse to research those records himself.
You need a combination of all of the above.