The 1787 Montgomery County, Virginia Personal Property Tax List A

The Harrell Collaborative put useful images of the 1787 Montgomery County, Virginia personal property tax list up on the internet for all to use.  This is an important list for descendants of Old Peter Skaggs because it is the year before Old Peter and Martha were married in Montgomery County.  Also, it was the year after William Lester and Rachel Skaggs were married in the same county.  There are some interesting taxpayers on the list and others who are interesting in their absence.

Old Peter Skaggs vs. Richard Damron

I recently found a reference to a court case in October court 1818 in Floyd County, Kentucky involving a lawsuit between Richard Damron and Old Peter. If the link doesn't work the reference is film 1844112, page 544 in vol. A of the Floyd County order books. Remember, at this time Lawrence County had not yet been split from Floyd.  It's interesting who was involved in the lawsuit.

More Skaggs and the Chickamauga Expedition of 1779

A while back I wrote a post about the Chickamauga Expedition of 1779. Basically, it was a water-borne attack on hostile Cherokees by the Virginia militia.  We know from his pension deposition that William Skaggs was a part of the expedition. Some family historians believe that kidnapped white Virginians were rescued from captivity, perhaps even Ruth Skaggs and daughters Rachel Skaggs and Darky Gothrin.  Now we have evidence that the Skaggs Long Hunters, John, Aaron and James Jr. were junior officers or non-commissioned officers under Captain Thomas Mastin on this expedition.

Where did all this weird DNA come from anyway?

Not just Skaggs, but a lot of people with an isolated Appalachian heritage are taking autosomal DNA tests and getting mysterious results.  For example, it seems pretty common that a solid streak of Scandanavian DNA is frequently showing up.  Maybe 1-2 percent.  Where did that come from?  And what about that Iberian or Italian DNA?  How many Scandanavians, Portugese, Spaniards or Italians were in the Appalachian mountains over the last 200 years?  I've been surprised by some theories of why this has happened.