Work, Service and Family History
Barklee’s personal journey alongside historical King families under investigation. The proposed ancestry through Gloria and Buster is incomplete, and the available records do not establish a seven-generation comparison of family wealth.
How Barklee Sanders Got Here
Born in Cortland, New York
Barklee Unitas-Ali Sanders, son of Clarence Douglass Sanders Jr. and Catherine Sanders. The proposed connection to the earlier King households remains under investigation.
Enlisted in the United States Army
Served as a Signal Support Systems Specialist (25U).
Honorable discharge and VA recognition
Military service and veteran benefits form part of Barklee’s personal history. Earlier relatives’ financial circumstances are not sufficiently documented for a comparison.
Tech career in San Francisco
Became a Senior Systems Engineer and developed a career in the San Francisco technology industry.
Founded AiVAClaims and ESBE Tech
Built a company to help other veterans navigate the disability claims process and launched a technology business.
Six-figure retirement portfolio before age 35
Personal savings, work and business ownership are part of this account. The available records cannot rank Barklee’s wealth against every earlier generation.
29 countries — including returning to Africa
Travel includes Togo, Ethiopia and South Africa. These journeys are personal experiences, not proof of a specific ancestral route.
Work and Historical Context
Charles King
b. 1815 — Enslaved person
Individual financial records have not been established.
A King household under investigation in the history of enslavement and emancipation. A documented connection to Barklee is still missing; the origin of the surname is not established.
James King
b. 1843 — Farmer
Farmer in the census research. Acreage, ownership and wealth require additional records.
Born enslaved in South Carolina. After emancipation, became a farmer in Ocala. Three consecutive censuses (1870-1900) confirm he sustained a household through agriculture.
Samuel Z. King
b. 1868 — Farmer
Occupation and financial history require records specific to this identity.
The census Samuel Z. King and the Samuel King who died in 1968 have not been established as one person. The funeral record gives age 89 and does not name Buster; the earlier age-100 claim is withdrawn.
Ebo 'Buster' King
b. 1895 — Laborer
Laborer; savings and net worth are not established.
His Florida death certificate and funeral record name Zack King and Martha Johnson as parents. Bernice is explicitly his daughter; Gloria’s relationship remains unconfirmed. This profile is part of the candidate-family research.
Gloria A. King
b. 1936 — Unknown occupation
Unknown. Raised in Jim Crow Florida.
Born in Ocala during segregation. Moved from Florida to New York, then to Pennsylvania. Part of the Great Migration generation.
Clarence Douglass Sanders Jr.
b. 1952 — Construction worker, political science student
Working class. Cortland, New York.
Studied political science at SUNY Cortland. Worked two Olympic Games. Construction work with Paul Yaman Construction and JBK Builders. Father of 10 children.
Barklee Sanders
b. 1994 — Senior Systems Engineer, U.S. Army veteran, entrepreneur
Professional career, military service and entrepreneurship. Comparative family wealth has not been established.
U.S. Army Signal Support Systems Specialist (2014-2020). 100% VA disability rating. Senior engineer in San Francisco tech industry. Founded AiVAClaims to help other veterans. Has traveled to 29 countries including returning to the African continent.
What Makes This Significant
Historical records can document occupations, households and the constraints people faced. They do not automatically establish land ownership, savings or a continuous family line. The early King profiles remain candidate ancestry.
Clarence Jr.’s documented relationship to Barklee provides a firm starting point. Gloria’s parents and the relationship between the census Samuel and the later funeral record require additional evidence. See the record review.
Historical Barriers and Opportunities
Slavery
Enslavement denied freedom and ownership to the people subjected to it; the connection of the early King households to Barklee remains under investigation.
Brief Reconstruction gains
King census research records farming in Marion County; occupation alone does not establish land ownership.
Jim Crow
Land theft, sharecropping traps, no access to credit or education.
Great Migration
Traded land for wage labor in Northern cities. New opportunities, but started over.
Work, service and education
Military service, GI Bill, tech career, retirement accounts, VA benefits.
Preserve the lives in the records while keeping each family connection open to evidence.
Profiles marked with a question mark belong to candidate-family research. Their placement does not establish a continuous pedigree or a ranking of financial success.