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.
We know that Germans from Pennsylvania have blended in with the Scots-Irish in Appalachia over the years. The German names Kettering and Plickenstarvor showed up in the New River Valley of Virginia in the 1700s. Some folks think that the Scandanavian DNA came in through the Germans.
Another theory involves the colony of New Sweden. The Swedes settled a colony in 1638 that extended from present day Philadelphia down into Delaware. In 1655 they lost this colony of New Sweden to the Dutch. Some think that the Scandanavian DNA comes from the residents of this area of Delaware, Maryland Eastern Shore and Pennsylvania as their descendants migrated into new settlement areas like the New River Valley of Virginia.
Another theory involving New Sweden is that when the Dutch took over the colony from the Swedes they brought in refugees from their Dutch colony in Brazil that they lost to Portugal in 1654. This would explain the Iberian DNA appearing in Appalachian family lines from Dutch citizens with Portugese or Spanish heritage showing up in Delaware after 1654. An example was Alexander de Hinojosa, who moved from Dutch Brazil to Delaware and had a large tract of land in New Castle County, Delaware seized by the British when they took over Dutch interests there.
For Skaggs descendants, we know that Richard Scaggs, the pioneer, owned land in Delaware. We don't know the names or surnames of several of the wives of early Skaggs ancestors in Kent County, Maryland. One or more of these women could have had Scandanavian or Iberian background.
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I just read something about the Skaggs descending from Scandinavia. Skeig eventually became Skaggs.
ReplyDeleteYes that's where I first thought this Scandanavian DNA was coming from but the percentages are too high for it to have been from Vikings.
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