Welcome to our McElvain - James family site.  Both sides of my family, as  well as my wife Georgia`s, originated in the 13 American colonies.  Our family  history typifies the American westward migration.  The McElvains came from  Scotland via Ireland in the early 1700s, settling in the Pennsylvania colony,  gradually moving west.  Today our family is located in Arizona and Alaska.  Georgia`s  family came to Arizona by wagon in 1875.  My ancestors have served in every American  war from the Revolution to World War II.
 My most colorful American ancestors would be:
 Thomas Williford, who was executed in 1676 by the British governor of Virginia  for taking part in Bacon`s Rebellion, the first colonial rebellion against  British rule, and Mary Boulter Prescott of Salem, Massachusetts, who (along with her  mother and others) was accused in 1680 of being a witch!! 
 My most famous (or infamous) cousins include the following: Dr. John Purdy  Reynolds, who was killed at the Battle of the Alamo in 1836; John Wesley  Hardin, the Texas outlaw/gunslinger; and Richard M. Nixon, 37th president of  the United States.
 Georgia`s best known cousin would be Jimmy Bryan, who won the Indianapolis 500  Race in 1958.
 According to the Ancestral File database in the Mormon church`s Family History  Library, my best known ancestors include Charlemagne, William the Conqueror,  King Alfred the Great, and a host of European kings and emperors.  If these  records are indeed accurate, my ancestors also include three saints; and my  female ancestors include Eleanor Aquitaine and Lady Godiva!!!  The McElvain name has a number of different spellings, but its early history  has been well researched.  Major written genealogies are:
 `The House of Grimmet` by William Ordway (1993), `A History of the McElvain-  McIlvaine Family Line` by Frank C. McElvain (completed in 1948, published in  1999), and `McElvain-McIlvaine` by Darrel L. Iwerks (1992).    Look over our family trees and please sign our Guest Book.
 And if you are interested in World War II history, visit my other website at  the first link below.  You will find some interesting letters relating  personal experiences from the European front. 
            Bill McElvain 
 e-mail:  wmcelvain at cox dot net    (address displayed in this manner to  prevent detection from e-mail spammers -- change at to @ and dot to .

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      `People will not look forward to posterity who never look backward to  their ancestors` (Edmund Burke)

`It is indeed a desirable thing to be well descended but the glory  belongs 
 to our ancestors` (Plutarch)

`A people without history is like the wind on the buffalo grass` (Native  American Sioux)

`To forget one`s ancestors is like a brook without a source; a tree  without roots` (Chinese proverb)