On an AWS instance, how do I replicate the '/home' configuration?

On an AWS instance, how do I replicate the '/home' configuration I use on my local server?

I created an AWS volume which I want to attach to an AWS instance. Many scripts I run are hard coded to '/home/my-user-name/program-name/'.

If I mount an EBS volume I create called '/home' (where I will place my applications), my understanding is that will mount over the /home created when the instance is created. I believe this will then 'smash' the /home/users and their ssh files (ssh log-in credentials) set up on the server.

I tried this already and the result was that I couldn't log-in. I fixed it by attaching the unreachable volume to another instance and copied over /home/users from the copy I made initially into /home-orig, before mounting the external volume as /home.