I can see I was a little dense and missed your point that we are talking about MS, vs SC. William D. Ruffin was living in 1887, and while he probably did sell some of his slaves from time to time, we have no way of knowing, unless the Ruffin family held on to their records, it he owned Ruff. While some famillies held on to everything, many others didn't, so then perhaps the deeds of sale might show something when purchasing. As mentioned Lucas's deeds of sale and I went through them all did not, excepting one, non-related. I don't know what the requirements of MS was in those days for slave sales, if they had to be recorded with the county or not.

However, I would like to include you material, if you are willing, but would appreciate being able to credit it to you.. My email is jacassidy22@verizon.net