Carolyn Thanks for posting the Foster Brown Cooper Slave information -- it takes so many pieces of the puzzle to make African American genealogy make sense. I is like looking for a needle in a barn-size haystack. By the way, if and when you get around to checking out probate records again at the courthouse.. if your time permits, could you pull a couple of items for me. I will fully compensate you copies, gas, parking etc. This offer stand for anyone who can help me out. I need to get a full copy of wills, probate, land deed and final settlement records. I thought for sure I had bought the book on Tom Bass -- but apparently I didn't. Hopefully the historical society still has copies for $20. Here's a repeat -- I'm trying to close in on the children of Stephen Chilton & Susanna Turner -- owned my ancestors in Virginia and then who showed up in Howard/Cooper Co., with final settlement and wills recorded in Howard CO. It appears to me that a good number of folks from Bourbon Co., MO settled in both Boone and Callaway County Missouri!! Here's are a few items I need help retrieving Will: Albert Tillman, adm, estate of Thomas Chilton, dec'd. 11 Feb. 1846. Sec; Mark A. Chilton of Cooper County Mo and Elam Sterns. Stephen Chilton?? dec.d Albert Selman, Adm. 10 February 1846, Sec. Mark A. Chilton and Elam Sterns. Also the Capt. William H. Johnson m. Rachel Spears -- their son William H. Johnson owned my ancestors at Ravenswood -- has a couple of probate records in Boone Co., which I believe may unwind some of the mystery of the Johnson family. Two related wills or probate records: Robert T. Johnston -- August 5, 1846 William Johnston -- May 4, 1846 [Joel P. Johnston is the principal in both above transactions and Joel Prewitt the secretary. Robert T. Johnson's wife was Mary Ann Prewitt. I don't know which William Johnston is mentioned above. There are several in the family.] I just realized that my cousin is married to a wonderful woman who is related to Tom Bass the famous black Missouri horse trainer. Tom's father was William Bass -- son of Eli Bass and his mother was a slave -- a young girl of 14. Eli Bass married Margaret Johnston, sister of William H. Johnston who married Margaret Hutchinson... they owned my ancestors who came with them from Bourbon Co., KY. Margaret subsequently married Nathaniel Leonard and settled on the famous Ravenswood Farm. What's really weird is when I first met my cousin Earl Miles, and he told me that his wife Clara's surname was Gray -- I joked with him about our cousins also being named GRAY. In fact, the CHILTONS owned my ancestors named GRAY. I checked out a quick link online about Tom Bass... and lo and behold -- Clara's ancestors were at the top of the column Presley and Eliza....DOYLE is also her line...as well as Pochantas Gray. My GRAY ancestor was Pamunkey Indian -- a tribe apparently with ties to Pochantas? I also just figured out that a JOHNSTON ancestor may have ended up in the household of Thomas E. Tutt on the 1880 St. Louis census. Margaret Hutchinson Johnston who married Nathaniel Leonard.. had a brother James who married Martha V. Tutt... so this could explain the tie. Thomas E. Tutt was married to Sally R. Rollins. Sally was the daughter of Mary Elizabeth Hickman and Major James Sidney Rollins. Mary's father was Lt. James Hickman -- brother of Margaret "Peggy" Hickman Hutchinson -- whose daughter Margaret first married William H. Johnston and then Nathaniel Leonard. George Caleb Bingham was apparently very close to this Hutchinson family -- of course, his first wife was Sarah Elizabeth Bingham.. and one of Sarah R. Rollins' brother -- carried the name George Bingham Rollins. See the James S. Rollins papers at WHMC/Columbia: http://www.system.missouri.edu/whmc/invent/rollins.htm I think I mentioned that Bingham painted portraits of Capt. William H. Johnston and Rachel Spears -- parents of the William H. Johnston who married Margaret Hutchinson. Do ya follow? Now about the ROLLINS/TUTT connection -- my cousin EARL MILES -- some of his ancestors USED to go by the surname of TUTT..some kept the name. Sarah R. Rollins has another connection -- that may be potentially helpful to me because I need to get back to GRAY: Sarah's sister Flora married a Sidney Gray. Earl Miles' ancestors includes a great uncle who is reported to be fathered by the Gen Sterling Price... and his name was Bob Price...and David H. Hickman's daughter Mary married Co. J. B. Price. It gets better.. Irene Hickman [daughter of William Hickman --- Margaret Hickman Hutchinson's youngest brother] married Eli Bass' son -- William -- so we're back to the top. The world keeps getting smaller and smaller. I hope you all kind follow what an ordeal it is to trace enslaved ancestors. My work is STILL ONLY BEGINNNING.. now I need to order more documents from WHMC and see where that leads me. Traci Wilson-Kleekamp African Americans in Missouri http://www.missouri-slave-data.org