Hi Ruskie,
Again, I'm far from an expert, but here's what I understand ....
If you and another person, both females, match on the X chromosome, it could be either male or female lines for either or both of you. It is only men who can know that an X-match means female line (because their other 23rd chromosome is Y). That means you might see some familiar surnames (if it is male line) or you might not (especially if it is female line).
I don't know about X matches being related to areas. I think in times gone by, people didn't move around so much as today, so any matches with common ancestors a few generations ago are likely to have been from the same area, but not certain.
To add to the surname difficulties, sometimes surnames changed or are unexpected - maybe the woman wasn't married and so the child may have been given her name, or the name of who she wanted to claim as father whether he was or not (I have researched a couple of cases like that), sometimes people changed their names and sometimes they were wrongly recorded. These are the sorts of difficulties where paper trails can lead to a brick wall, and DNA can help.
In the end, we need a little luck, a lot of persistence and some assistance from those we match with, to trace possible connections. Best of luck!