According to an old family tradition, Nimrod was nine years old at the time the American Revolution began, but census records indicate he was born about 1780, which would make him nine years old at the time of the adoption of the constitution and the inauguration of George Washington in 1789. His father, William Aaron Saunders, died when he was about two years old and his mother, Joan Bailey Saunders, lived until about 1810. According to family tradition, Nimrod's brothers and sisters were Stephen, Luke, and Sarah.

Nimrod operated a grist mill in Montgomery County, North Carolina and was known as "Honest Rod." He and his wife, Mary Elizabeth Ricketts, had fifteen children. Their names and dates of birth are known through the Davis family Bible. In the 1830s, Nimrod and his wife and many of their children moved to Georgia and then to Cherokee County, Alabama.

Nimrod and his wife Mary Elizabeth Rickett Saunders were still living at the time of the 1860 census but probably died a couple of years later. They are believed to be buried in unmarked graves on the family land.

The children of Nimrod Saunders and Mary Elizabeth Ricketts are as follows:

i. SARAH5 SAUNDERS, b. December 21, 1803, Montgomery County, North Carolina; m. MOORE GRAVES; b. Abt. 1800, North Carolina.
ii. TABITHA SAUNDERS, b. July 21, 1806, Montgomery County, North Carolina; d. January 15, 1892, Etowah County, Alabama.
iii. NATHAN D. C. SAUNDERS, b. May 27, 1808, Montgomery County, North Carolina; d. June 23, 1832, North Carolina.
iv. AARON SAUNDERS, b. May 04, 1810, Montgomery County, North Carolina; d. 1862.
v. STEPHEN C. SANDERS, b. March 28, 1812, Montgomery County, North Carolina; d. March 22, 1894, Prairie Grove, Washington County, Arkansas.
vi. POLLY MARY SAUNDERS, b. February 28, 1814, Montgomery County, North Carolina; d. Aft. 1870, Montgomery County, North Carolina.
vii. PALLY (TWIN) SAUNDERS, b. February 28, 1814, Montgomery County, North Carolina; d. Aft. 1880, Marshall County, Alabama
viii. THOMAS BAILEY I SAUNDERS, b. October 09, 1816, Montgomery County, North Carolina; d. May 26, 1902, Saunders Station, Bexar County, Texas.
ix. INFANT SAUNDERS, b. 1818, Montgomery County, North Carolina.
x. JOANNA SAUNDERS, b. July 08, 1820, Montgomery County, North Carolina; d. October 03, 1879, Etowah County, Alabama.
xi. JACKSON SAUNDERS, b. August 21, 1822, Montgomery County, North Carolina; d. September 21, year of death not certain, after 1860.
xii. HARRIS SANDERS, b. March 23, 1824, Montgomery County, North Carolina; d. February 21, 1917, Blue Mountain, Tippah County, Mississippi.
xiii. LUKE SANDERS, b. August 26, 1826, Montgomery County, North Carolina; d. April 10, 1893, Eden, Concho County, Texas
xiv. AGNES SAUNDERS, b. June 03, 1828, Montgomery County, North Carolina; d. 1900; m. JACOB HOOPER; b. 1827, North Carolina; d. Unknown.
xv. ALLEN SAUNDERS, b. November 11, 1829, Montgomery County, North Carolina; m. FRANCES GIBSON, September 30, 1852, Dekalb County, Alabama.