NOTE: This John Osborn Roberts of Wayne County, TN was absolutely NOT the son of Reuben Roberts and Millie Asher Roberts.

Tombstone states:
John O. Roberts
born April 22, 1792 (should read 1791)
died July 13, 1862
Masonic symbol on stone

Epitaph reads:
He is gone from our midst
The bright star of our home
And our once happy hearts
Are cheerless and lone

The Family Bible of John Osborn Roberts has his name written John O. Roberds and his birth date written as April 22, 1791 (not 1792).

John Osborn Roberts married Nancy Jane Stroud, who is buried beside him.

David Travillion Bunton descends from Andrew Jackson Roberts, the youngest son of John Osborn Roberts and Nancy Jane Stroud. John O. Roberts Bible descended in this branch, some pages were fully intact, and others were in fragments, but David Travillion Bunton used tombstone, family letters, and other documents to verify the entries.

DNA testing, both Y DNA and autosomal for descendants of John Osborn Roberts has been done to substantiate the research concerning this particular branch of the Roberts family. John O Roberts had half brothers George HM Walker and William Battles. John O Roberts was born out of wedlock to Mary Moore; research and DNA establishes his father as a Bates. His mothers sister married a Roberts and it is believed that he accepted the Roberts surname because he lived for a time in the household of his aunt and uncle, who were kindly toward him. It is proven by DNA that he does not descend from this Roberts family.(Also please note that he does not descend from a Reuben Roberts and Mary Asher.) Sue Ann Hayley interviewed descendents who verified John O Roberts' half brothers and David Travillion Bunton located an old diary of a relative born in the 1860s which also verified the connection.
by David Travillion Bunton