BROKEN LINKS AND BRICK WALLS

Most of my ancestors were Southern pioneers who were too busy earning a living to give much thought to leaving records for the convenience of their descendants. No doubt many of them would regard a descendant obsessed with tracing the lives of obscure farmers, mechanics, and small town merchants as an individual preoccupied with frivolous  pursuits. 

And it's not just people from ordinary circumstances who have difficulty in tracing their genealogy. Even the upper echelons of society have brick walls and broken links in their genealogical record, and most people, even those who are prominent in their communities during their lifetimes, just do not leave many footprints in history. Gary Boyd Roberts' excellent book Ancestors of American Presidents shows that even for extensively researched individiuals, such as presidents, there is still a lot we will never know about our ancestors.

Here are some of the problems in my genealogy:

• Who were the parents of Joseph Sanders who died in Randolph County, North Carolina in 1803? DNA tests reveal that he is not from the same Sanders line as  his neighbor Isaac Saunders, whose children intermarried into Joseph's family. DNA tests show that Joseph was related to William Sanders of Chatham County, North Carolina. How were they related? Were William and Joseph brothers? 
• Who were the parents of Francis Sanders, born 1782, in North Carolina? He appears to be a brother of Benjamin Sanders who died before 1850 in Jackson County, Alabama, but we have no document that gives a specific reference to his parents.
• Who were the parents of James Sanders who lived in Montgomery County, North Carolina during the late 1700s? DNA test show he was related to the others Sanders of Randolph and Montgomery but we have no paper trail, though sketchy documentation suggests that William Sanders of Anson County may have been his father.
  
• Who were the parents of Robert Sanders, born about 1801 in North Carolina? He moved to Izard County, Arkansas. DNA tests show that he is related to the Saunders of Randolph and Montgomery, and there is even a tradition in his family that he was from Randolph County, but we have no paper documentation concerning his parents.
• Who were the parents of the four brothers (Aaron, Moses, Isaac, and Francis) who lived in central North Carolina in the 1760s and 1770s?  We have a vague tradition that the parents were John Saunders and Catherine Nimrod, but this is by no means certain. No documentary records concerning John and Catherine have ever been found. Conflicting family traditions ascribe Scottish, Irish, or English ancestory to this family, but we have no documentary record of any of them before the 1750s in Halifax and  Brunswick counties in Virginia.
• How is the Lewis Sanders  line of Fairfax and Loudoun Counties in Virginia related to the Saunders of Randolph and Montgomery? DNA testts show a connection but we do not know if the common ancestor lived in Virginia or in the "old country." 
• Who were the parents of  John Ewing Sanders, born in 1852 in Tennessee?  DNA tests show he is related to the Sanders of Randolph and Montgomery. He married another Sanders, Caroline "Callie" Sanders. Her father appears to be Jesse  B. Sanders, who was born about 1820 in Virginia.  Was this Jesse also related to the Sanders of Randolph and Montgomery?