DNA Testing: Skaggs as One Big Happy Family?

I've been searching the Internet for genetic haplogroup results from Skaggs DNA testing, looking for Skaggs, Scaggs, Skeggs, Staggs, etc. thinking that perhaps all came from the same Y-chromosome haplogroup.  You can look up what a haplogroup is for yourself, but basically it's a big extended family that has the same Y-chromosome mutation.  The Y-chromosome is very stable so these mutations don't occur very often and a haplogroup can be stable for thousands of years.  That's how these testing services can say your cousin Bubba is related to Atilla the Hun, besides his table manners.  My theory has been that the Skaggs are all from the same haplogroup.

Famous Skaggs: The Real-Life Maverick Brothers

Remember the Maverick brothers from 1960s TV?  Bret and Bart Maverick were brothers in the Old West who were constantly getting into and out of trouble, usually involving money, women or both.  Well, there were two Skaggs brothers, E.M. and E.H., that were a lot like these guys in the same time period.

The Safeway Skaggs: Where did they come from?

A branch of the Skaggs family founded the Safeway family of stores, with names like Osco, Albertsons and Longs Drugs.  Sam Skaggs donated $100 million to the Scripps Research Institute. You can read about the family here and their genealogy here.  M. B. Skaggs was the first President of Skaggs United Stores.  It has been thought by many genealogists that the Safeway Skaggs family goes back to a James C. Skaggs who served during the Revolutionary War.  Could be, but I'm not so sure.

Famous Skaggs: Boz Scaggs

If you followed rock music back in the 1970s you will remember Boz Scaggs, with songs like Lido Shuffle and Lowdown.  He was born William Royce Scaggs in 1944.  

Here is his genealogical pedigree:

Famous Skaggs: Ricky Skaggs

Anybody who has followed Bluegrass music or the Grand Ole Opry in the last 40 years knows about Ricky Skaggs.  His production company is Skaggs Family Records.  Here is his pedigree back to Old Peter Scaggs:

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

The 1820 Census and Old Peter Scaggs

The 1820 census has some interesting information for Scaggs family historians.  The relevant county in Kentucky in 1820 is Floyd since, at the time, it included some or all of the future counties of Lawrence, Pike, Morgan, Carter, Johnson, Magoffin, Boyd and Elliott.  The KYKinfolk website has a good transcription of the 1820 Floyd County census.

DNA Testing: Old Peter and Martha Were Not Native American

An anonymous correspondent has informed me the results of an autosomal DNA test, and these results are important to descendants of Old Peter Scaggs who are interested in possible Native American heritage.  Our correspondent is a documented direct descendant of Old Peter and Martha and the DNA test showed ZERO Native American ancestry.  Not a trace.  So the multi-generational rumor that Martha Cothron was Cherokee appears to be just a myth.

A Forgotten Stash of Skaggs Information?

Maud Carter Clement was a writer and historian of southwestern Virginia.  Genealogical information and local history of Pittsylvania County, Va. are the main interests of the collection of Mrs. Clement, housed at the University of Virginia Library in Charlottesville.  This collection was the raw information for her genealogical research that produced books such as The History of Pittsylvania County, Virginia.

A folder that may be of interest to Skaggs researchers is in this collection.  Labeled as "Genealogical data re: Skaggs" and dated December 9, 1938 it may contain information about Skaggs ancestors with ties to Pittsylvania County, Virginia.  Some Skaggs ancestors that have those ties include: Zachariah Skaggs, John Skaggs and Charles Skaggs, who appeared in the 1767 tax list, Archibald Skaggs who, in a military pension deposition declared he lived there prior to the Revolution, and Eli Skaggs who supposedly married Rebecca Popejoy there c. 1791.

The folder of interest is identified as Box 13, Folder 10 of the collection, labeled "Genealogical data re: Skaggs."  If someone can take a peek into that folder in Charlottesville, please let us know what is in it.

John Scaggs of Kent County, Maryland

Thanks to some recent digital transcription of records by the Maryland Historical Society we have discovered that a John Scaggs lived in Kent County, Maryland in 1749 and 1750.

Ruth Scaggs Bishop and the Cherokee Kidnapping

I previously wrote about the Bishop family legend of Ruth Scaggs being captured by Indians.  There is some new evidence that this legend may be based in fact.  A Rev. William R. Belcher from Lewis County, Washington submitted an Eastern Cherokee Application #31073 in 1908 claiming his grandfather's grandmother was taken prisoner by a Cherokee chief.