I found your message posted 10/1/00 quite interesting. The first question that comes to mind is the sources for your information which I would be more than curious to review. Everything that I have researched never makes mention of a French connection, but my mind remains open to new findings. As we are all more than familiar with the multitude of spellings of the last name, I will leave that subject alone for the time being. My records show two distinct families from England with the original spelling of KELHAM for the Nottinghamshire family back to 1100 and the town of Kelham, and the other spelling of KILHAM/KILLAM family with tracable origins to Suffolkshire to 1500. It has been hypothesised the Kilham/Killam family has its roots in Yorkshire, East Riding, the Parish of Kilham. As for Viking roots, I am sure there are connections. With the first three letters of both spellings of the last name having theoretical Viking origins. KEL meaning ships keel and KIL meaning cold. The town of Kelham has terrain which resembles a ships keel and the Parish of Kilham has cold artesian wells. There could be another family with entirely different roots with Norman origins. Show us the sources please. Contact me directly at my e-mail address rkilham@snet.net Rick Kilham ----- Original Message ----- From: <JKellum100@aol.com> To: <KELLAM-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Sunday, October 01, 2000 6:20 PM Subject: Re: [KELLAM] Kellum name origins > The Kellum name is Norman originally and they fought with > Scotland and England. They were awarded lands in England > for there services in the Battle of Hastings. Some say that > Samuel came from Wales, but I have seen no proof of that. > Most of my research shows that they were Vikings! > > JK > > > ==== KELLAM Mailing List ==== > Search the Social Security Death Index online for FREE! > http://ssdi.genealogy.rootsweb.com/ > The most powerful SSDI search engine on the Internet! > It's a great place to add a copy of the obit or family history! >