Sanders Family ReunionGrand Rivers, Kentucky

Our Story

The Descendants of Charles Hubbard Sanders & Sadie Jane Stinnett

Every reunion tells a story of who came before. Here's ours — and an open invitation to the branches we're just now getting to know.

A sepia-toned portrait of Charles Hubbard Sanders and Sadie Jane Stinnett Sanders, seated together for a formal photograph.

Charles Hubbard Sanders & Sadie Jane Stinnett Sanders

The Founding Generation

Charles Hubbard Sanders & Sadie Jane Stinnett

This family, and this reunion, trace back to Charles Hubbard Sanders and Sadie Jane Stinnett. Theirs is the home place that generations of us have heard about at the table — the name that comes up first when someone asks, "now how are we related, exactly?"

This page is a living document. As more family history comes to light — through old letters, courthouse records, and the DNA research described on the Y-DNA Project page — we'll keep filling in the story here.

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Growing Beyond the Original Line

Widening the circle

For years, this reunion has belonged to the children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren of Charles and Sadie. But family trees rarely stop where we first draw the line — and as our research has pushed a generation or two further back and sideways, we've found cousins who share this family's roots without ever having sat at one of our tables.

That's why we're opening this reunion up. If your family connects to the Sanders or Stinnett line a step or two beyond Charles and Sadie themselves — a sibling's descendants, a shared great-grandparent, a name that keeps showing up in the same old county records — you belong here too.

Not sure if you fit? That's exactly what the reunion is for. Come find out, and bring whatever you know — even a half-remembered story can be the piece that connects two branches.

Tell Us How You Connect

A Patchwork Family

The family tree, one block at a time

Every family history is really a patchwork — pieces gathered from different places, stitched together over time. Here's a first look at how the generations connect. Consider it a work in progress.

Charles Hubbard Sanders & Sadie Jane Stinnett
The Founding Generation

Their Children

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Grandchildren & the Branches Beyond

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Your Branch?
New to the family

This tree grows as family members send in names, dates, and stories — add your branch.

Reunion Through the Years

How this gathering has grown

The Early Years

A small gathering of Charles & Sadie's children and grandchildren

What started as a handful of family members catching up turned into a tradition worth marking on the calendar every other year.

Recent Decades

Great-grandchildren and cousins join in

As the family grew and spread out across the country, Grand Rivers stayed the one place everyone could still find their way back to.

Today

Opening the circle wider than ever

With new research — and a Y-DNA project helping confirm connections the paper trail alone can't — we're welcoming cousins from branches we're only now getting to know.

Curious how DNA is helping us map the rest of the family tree?

A simple test is helping confirm — and in some cases discover — how far this family really reaches.

See the Y-DNA Project