Oh my God, do I have some great news for you! I started writing this response and got to the point where I was going to remark that I also had tracked family into Nelson County, KY (a collateral line). I was about to ask you if you had ever made contact with the courthouse there, because there was a woman, Pat Craven, who worked there and was very much into black slave genealogy, and had actually produced a book in which she extracted the slaves out of many of the old wills & other misc documents. Then I decided to go and see if I could locate the book so I could give you accurate source info on it, and at the same time take a peek at it for anything helpful on the Samuels name.

Well I did find a Samuels entry, but unfortunately, there was no Mary, and no slave named Alford. Then I looked for the Sayers surname and found none. Finally, I looked for Wiseheart, and paydirt!!! A willbook entry for a Ben Wiseheart has a Wilson Samuels as the administrator to his estate! Another willbook entry for a John Wiseheart lists a slave, ALFORD, age 18, valued at $350, along with 3 other slaves!!!!!!!! I checked the 1870 census and found your Alford, and the age matches PERFECTLY!!! No wonder John Wiseheart said he knew Alford was Mary's slave. Send me your email and I will send you the scanned pages.

And oh, by the way, yes I would like you to send me a copy of the oath/compensation document. (smile)

Tim