English: habitational name for someone from a place called Elham,
in Kent, or a lost place of this name in Crayford, Kent. The first is
derived from Old English ?l ‘eel’ + ham
‘homestead’ or hamm ‘enclosure hemmed in by water’. There is
also an Elam Grange in Bingley, West Yorkshire, but the current
distribution of the name in the British Isles suggests that it did not
contribute significantly to the surname.
Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4
369,374
Historical Documents & Family Trees with Elam
The information for this chart came from the U.S. Immigration Collection at Ancestry.co.uk.
You can find out where the majority of the Elam families were living before
they immigrated to the U.S and learn where to focus your search for foreign records.
Immigration records can tell you an ancestor's name, ship name, port of departure,
port of arrival, and destination.
Did the Elams fight in a war? Military records can tell you a lot
about your ancestors including birthplace, occupation and even physical descriptions.