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Sanders Family
Joel Sanders [my 7th
great grandfather] is the earliest ancestor I could find through Quaker
Records. He may have been born around 1718 and died 2 February 1782
at Wrightsborough MM, Columbia/McDuffie Co., Georgia. According to
these records he arrived from Cane Creek MM in South Carolina..
The only known wife was
Charity Hollowell born about 1722 and died between 23 and 27 January
1782 in Wrightsborough.
Thirteen children have been
found through Quaker records, and many of them are mentioned in the
Wrightsborough minutes. Joel produced a certificate from the
Cane Creek MM for himself "Wife and Children" dated 7th day of the 1st
month 1775. The only thing not mentioned in these minutes, is the
Sanders family nationality.
In the late 1800s, Sibby
(Rich) Burnside applied for Cherokee
Citizenship from her home in Muscatine Co., Iowa. In her
application she states that she was the child of Rebecca (Sanders) Rich
daughter of William Sanders a half breed born on the Cherokee
Reservation in Georgia.
She goes further to state that
William was the son of Joel Sanders born on a Cherokee
Reservation east of the Mississippi River. William was also
the son of one Sarah Morgan a half breed born on Cherokee
Reservation east of the Mississippi River. It boggles my mind as to
how there could be so many "half-breeds", someone had to be full blooded
Cherokee. And just exactly where were they born?
The Wrightsborough Quaker
records lists William Sanders as being born there, and in 1776,
Joel Sanders produced a few lines condemning his marriage proving that
he and wife were at the settlement before William was born.
In 1786 he is asking that his two children William and Barbara
be given full right of membership and they were "taken under Friends care
which Friends finds freedom in and receives them into membership
accordingly."
By Joel having to
condemn his "outgoings in marriage" would suggest that he did not marry a
woman of the Quaker faith, and she could very well have been Cherokee, or
just a Baptist or other denomination. The Quaker records never state
why the marriage had to be condemned.
The only explanation would be
that Joel Sanders, Jr. traveled to the Quaker Meetings from his
home near or at the Cherokee Reservation, which was some distance away at
that time. Another mystery, is a third child of Joel and
Sarah (Morgan) Sanders, who was mentioned in a letter dated 9 January
1782, stating that Joel Saunders Sr. with wife and 6 children, and
Joel Saunders Jr. with wife and three children, were listed as
living in Savannah, Chatham Co., Georgia.
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