Ladonna, thanks for your reply. Finding information about the origin of Edward, William, Joel, and Alexander (?) is one of the thorniest problems that I have encountered in my years of researching Elam genealogy. No ships' records, birth records, marriage records, Bible records, or other records have come to my attention. I have researched in Amelia, Chesterfield, Charlotte, Lunenburg, Mecklenburg, Dinwiddie, and other counties in VA in deeds, wills, probate, court minutes, etc. in court houses and libraries and in the VA state archives in Richmond. Thus far I have found no info to document their births or parents. All these men had connections in life with various families who also had interests in Charlotte, Lunenburg, and Mecklenburg counties, e. g., the Goodes, Worshams, Hills, Osbornes, and others. Because of several land transactions involving some of these families and the Elams and John Elam Sr. (son of old Martin Elam) and John Elam Jr. in Chesterfield Co., a close connection can be suggested. Several researchers think it is likely that the brothers were sons of John Elam Jr. They less likely, because of the time span of lives, were sons of John Elam Sr. I recently searched again in Amelia and Chesterfield counties trying to locate all the records I could about John and John Jr. and found no new info proving their connection to the brothers. There was a Martin Elam who died in Amelia Co.,in 1738 about whom nothing else is known who also could have been connected to them. Martin possibly was a son of John Elam Sr, borther of John Elam Jr., but that is only a theory. I could find no further iinfo on this Martin. Will apprecicate hearing from you if you run across anything that will shed light on this problem. Earl