Ray Flannery (cashwork@swbell.net) writes in an email of 19 May 1997: "I am a gr grandson of Bluford Elliott. Bluford's father was John M. who was assassinated in 1866 where the court house now stands in Sandy Hook KY. Bluford's wife Martha Ellen Cassity lived with my father for a while and told him many stories. They had several children. I have no dates except for Pearl my grandmother. The names I have are: Arnold, Tillman, Nannie, Hattie, Marion (f) and Pearl b. 5/14/1885 Rowan Co married Landsford Flannery 1903. These are not in any order just names that I have. Tillman died about ten years ago in Arkansas. Marion married a Wilson and lived in Wisconsin. Frank lived north of Dayton OH in some small town I can't remember. Frank was one of the younger and may still be living but I don't know. I seem to remember another sister who lived in Wisconsin but can't be sure."

Ray’s story is wrong in one respect, in that Bluford’s father was not John M. Elliott. The John Elliott who married Mary Ann Pettit was the son of Samuel Elliott and Fanny Perry of Morgan County; the John M. Elliott who became a Judge and a Kentucky State Senator was the son of John Lisle Elliott of Carter County. (And there was another John M. Elliott in Morgan Co., b. 1855 the son of George M. Elliott and Tennessee Adkins.)

Also, census records reveal that Pearl had a sister Bettie who married Marion Wilson, rather than a sibling Marion who married a Wilson.

Rowan Co. birth records, on LDS microfilm #216839, list Martha E. Cassity, b. 18 Nov 1858, daughter of Norrus Cassity & Eliza Brown.

1880 census of Morgan Co., Ky, district 87, pp. 17-18, enumerated in June (not dated), lists as household #148:
Elliott, Bluford, 26, laborer; //page break// Ellen, 21, wife; Link, John D., 12, boarder; Preston, 8, boarder. All born Ky Ky Ky.

(This group of census pages was filmed in the order “... 17 20 18 19 21 ...”, causing potential confusion for all the families that cross the borders between pages 17-18, 19-20, and 20-21.)

“John D. Link” is probably John Tom Pettit, with a “T” misheard as “D”, and “Preston Link” is probably Preston Pettit, both sons of Lizzie Pettit and John Link, and thus first cousins of Bluford.

1900 census of Rowan Co., Ky, Pearce precinct, p. 212B, records as family #141:
Elliot, Bluford, 46, forester, 46, b. Aug 1854; Martha E., wife, 44, b. Apr 1856; married 20 years, mother of 7 children, 6 living; Nannie E., dau, 18, b. Mar 1882; Hattie M., dau, 16, b. Apr 1884; Pearl J., dau, 14, b. Jan 1886; Tillman, son, 8, b. Dec 1891; Bettie E., dau, 5, b. Feb 1895; Frank, son, 3, b. May 1897; Turner, George, boarder, 55, b. Apr 1845, widowed; Stewart, Jasper, boarder, 19, b. May 1881.
(The 1900 census of Pearce and Hoggtown (Christy Creek) precincts is notoriously unreliable on birthdates, so these are pretty worthless, but I’m entering them anyway pending other evidence. On Martha, it conflicts with her birth record, and with Pearl, it conflicts with the report from her grandson Ray Flannery, who gives her birthdate as 14 May 1885. The large gap between the births of Pearl and Tillman suggests that the child who died was probably born 1887-1890.)

1910 census of Rowan Co., Ky, Pearce precinct, page 237A, lists as family #144/151:
Elliott, Bluford, 50, farmer, married 33 years; Martha, 48, wife, mother of 8 children, 7 living; Tilden, 17, son; Frank, 13, son; Arnold, 11, son; (Nannie, crossed out, followed by on the same line by) Bettie, 15, daughter. All born Ky Ky Ky. Since Arnold was not listed in the 1900 census, he is probably not really 11.

In 1920, Nannie and Hattie are in Rowan Co. with their husbands, Pearl, Bettie, Frank and Arnold are in Vermilion Co., Illinois, and Tillman is in Grady Co., Oklahoma, where Pearl would be also in 1930. I cannot find Bluford or Martha in either the 1920 census or the Kentucky death index.