Busel Skaggs: Just a Rabbit Pulled from a Hat?

I've blogged before about genealogical myths that surround the Skaggs family, for example the famous Mary Thear myth.  Thanks to Wilene Smith (alias Chloe Q Cumber) we stuck a pin in that balloon back in 2007, however, I still see Mary Thear in family trees all over the place sending our fellow family historians on useless wild goose chases.

We may have been snookered by another one of these Skaggs myths, the elusive Busel Skaggs.  This slippery fellow was supposed to be the father of the American Skaggs family, an Irishman, a Virginian, basically all things to all people.  However, I am unaware of any evidence that he ever existed.  No one I have ever communicated with has been successful in finding any evidence of the existence of Busel Skaggs either.  Yet this ghost appears on Skaggs family trees everywhere!  And it's not just me, even the great Skaggs genealogist Ida Lancaster was exasperated with the modern day snipe hunt for Busel Skaggs.

"I think someone pulled a rabbit out of a hat and called him Busel." - Ida Lancaster
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1 comment:

  1. AnonymousDecember 23, 2014 at 4:34 PM

    I've looked for years and not found any records for Busell Skaggs. It has been a big waste of time for me.

    ReplyDelete

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