Pam, it looks as if our Joseph Williams ancestor, Lodowick Williams went from Wales, departing Bristol, England for Barbados as an indentured servant of Matthew Powell. Then his indenture was purchased by a man who took him to the Baltimore area where Lodowick married his daughter then later moved to northeastern NC. That Lodowick had a son, Edward who had a son, Joseph Williams that is thought to have married Mary Mewborn who they were the parents of our Joseph Williams. There has been no proof of the connection of those two Joseph Williams being father and son, however. And that is what I have been working so hard on trying to establish. There is good documentation of Lodowick Williams down to Edward Williams' will naming a son, Joseph but then there is no proof that this Joseph Williams married Mary Mewborn. Only the fact that our Joseph Williams and Martha Perritt/Parrott named one of their sons Mewborn. The old family stories are not reliable but records have been found to prove everything except the Joseph s/o Joseph (grandson of Edward) marrying Mary Mewborn. Thomas Mewborn (the only Mewborn found in the early Bertie Co., NC records) did have a will (1749) naming his only daughter as Mary but gave no married name. By Joseph Williams and Martha Perritt naming a son Mewborn (proven by Joseph's will) would indicate a strong connection to the/a Mewborn family. That is our brick was. Of course we could be headed in the wrong direction but a thorough search of records all down the line looks pretty promising. The affidavits have the name Paul as adopting Joseph Williams could so easily have been Powell and by his being indentured to Matthew Powell, the story could have been picked up as adopted. All these affidavits were made by 3rd and 4th generation descendants of our Joseph who married Martha Perritt and you know how word of mouth gets changed so easily.