Cathy, My Joel Elam (1736-1798) was from Lunenburg County which later became Mecklenburg County Virginia. He was a proponent of the Revolution and gave grain and meat for the war effort. His oldest son Alexander was a private in the Revolution. Many of Alexander's children moved here to Illinois in the early 1800's and settled in the Bond county area (around Greenville and Vandalia). There is still a remnant of that family there. One of Joel's other sons, Peter, is who I descend from. Peter's youngest son John married Martha Yancey of Mecklenburg county in 1835 and then soon after moved into Granville county NC. They then moved to Iredell county NC where I have located living Elam cousins. We are going to meet later this summer. My great great grandfather John Daniel, left Iredell county in 1875 and moved to Union county Illinois where he raised 14 children. I have a lot of cousins in Union county but they are getting up in age. I do not know many of the younger ones. My Elam line looks like this: Kent Elam, Jr (me) Kent Elam, Sr (1936-1989) Kenneth Elam (1916-1989) Oscar Elam (1892-1954) John Daniel Elam (1852-1933) John Elam (1806-1875) Peter Elam (1767-1842) Joel Elam (1736-1798) >From here the lineage is only by circumstantial evidence. No one has been able to document this as fact but many Elam researchers have studied this for years and believe that there is a high probability that this is true. John Elam, Jr John Elam, Sr Martin Elam Thomas Elam or Robert Elam I have seen reference to a younger Joel Elam in some of my research. I believe he may be from the Charlotte county VA Elams. They are allegeded to be the brothers of my Joel (all sons of this John Elam Jr). This younger Joel may possibly be a nephew to my Joel. It is also possible that this younger Joel is the son of Alexander therefore making him a grandson to my Joel. Please do not quote me on any of this. I will see if I can dig up some information on the younger Joel. The Elams seemed to name there children after there brothers so there could be a relationship here. You might also try posting your query about your Joel at the following address: ELAM-ROOTS-L@rootsweb.com There are a lot of knowledgeable Elam researchers at this site. I have got to get going. My day is starting early. Let me know what you think. Kent