DNA Testing Update: Skaggs and the Isle of Man

It’s time for an update on the Skaggs DNA testing.  Several Skaggs have submitted Y-DNA test results since the last time we checked in and additional autosomal DNA testing results for Skaggs descendants have been posted to GEDMatch.  These new tests have produced some interesting results.

The Big-Y DNA Test is on Sale

For men with the Skaggs, Scaggs or Skeggs surname interested in tracing your Skaggs ancestry back to colonial times or perhaps Europe, the Family Tree DNA Big-Y test is on sale through Thanksgiving (UPDATE: now Christmas) for $399.

The Mystery of Richard Wade Skaggs

Back in 2014 there was a request on the Ancestry message boards for information about a Richard Wade Skaggs from Western Kentucky.  He supposedly was born in Louisiana and grew up in Kentucky and appears to have ties to a Richard Wade and Mary Ann Skaggs who are found in Louisiana shortly after it was turned over to the United States.  What's really interesting for Skaggs researchers are the lawsuits filed in 1836 against a bunch of Skaggs including this Mary Ann Skaggs and her husband Richard Wade.  The details are below the fold.

Morgan County, Indiana Skaggs

The Morgan County, Indiana Gazette published a three-part series on the Skaggs family on April 22, 1971.  Part 1 is copied below.  Parts 2 & 3 are lengthy and can be obtained from the Morgan County Public Library in Martinsville, Indiana.

Zachariah Skaggs: Mistaken Identity

Too many fake family trees on the internet are changing reality. A specific case of this for Skaggs researchers is Zachariah Skaggs. The internet seems convinced that the Zachariah Skaggs who lived in Virginia in the late 1700s to 1818 was married to a Nancy Annie Wilcox. I've posted about this error before and how two Zachariahs from different times and places and two Nancys have been confounded into a fake marriage of a young Kentucky girl, Nancy Wilcox, with a dead Virginian, Zachariah Skaggs. So once again:

• Zachariah Skaggs from Russell County, VA, father of Jeremiah, was married to a Nancy (Annie), but NOT Nancy Wilcox, and he died in Virginia in 1818
• Born prior to 1747, likely in Maryland
• Heir-at-law to John Scaggs who died in Montgomery County, Virginia c. 1779
• Estate passed to grandson John Skaggs in Russell County in 1818
• Zachariah Skaggs, from Barren County, KY, grandson of John Skaggs, the disabled war veteran from the family of Long Hunters, was married to Nancy Wilcox in Kentucky in 1822
• Born in 1801 in Kentucky
• Died in Bartholomew County, Indiana c.1830
• Widow Nancy Skaggs appeared in the 1830 Bartholomew County census
• Widow Nancy (also known as Anna) Skaggs remarried in 1832 to Daniel Reynolds in Bartholomew County, Indiana

Absolom Elkins and His Ancestors

I know the Elkins aren't Skaggs but we can't ignore that one of the great remaining unproven Skaggs legends is that a Ruth Elkins firstly married John Scaggs and secondly John Bishop.  The Elkins and Scaggs lived nearby in Halifax County, Virginia in the 1760s and later in the 1770s on Little River in Montgomery County.  Absolom Elkins eventually inherited that property on Little River so let's hear what Elkins researchers have to say about him.

Aaron Skaggs' Sons and the Adultery Charges

Back in colonial Virginia there was an Aaron Skaggs who many researchers believe was one of the Long Hunter brothers.  He died prior to 1800 so he would not have necessarily been considered in the Moses Skaggs court case later in the 1800s.  Anyway, this Aaron had two sons, Henry and Aaron, who were brought up on adultery charges in Washington County, Virginia in 1781.

Are Richard Scaggs and Sarah Selby Buried Here?

There was a Scaggs family in Prince George's County, Maryland beginning about 1750 on a farm called "Chew's Folly."  I posted about this family here.  Several family members appear to be buried in a family cemetery in present-day College Park, Maryland.

The Long Hunters: Jacob Skaggs

I've tried to avoid the Skaggs Long Hunters, since so much has been written about Henry, Richard and Charles I didn't think I could add much of value.  However, I'm finding a lot of poor information out there about the Long Hunters so I thought I would wade into the shallow end of the Long Hunter pool and discuss what I know about Jacob Skaggs, the youngest and least researched of the brothers.

Zachariah Skaggs and the D.A.R.

I found a post in the January 2008 Rootsweb archive that is interesting for documented descendants of Zachariah Skaggs.  Zachariah was accepted as a patriot by the genealogists of the Daughters of the American Revolution (D.A.R.), so if you can document a connection to Zachariah, you are eligible for D.A.R. membership.

Bible Entries for the Sims Settlement Scaggs

I have been scrolling back through the history of the Rootsweb Skaggs list and found an entry regarding one of the Sims Settlement Scaggs families.  This October 2008 entry seems long forgotten.  A poster to the old Genealogy.com Genforum board claimed to possess a Williams family bible with two Scaggs entries in it.

Who Were the Wayne County West Virginia Scaggs?

There were groups of Scaggs families who showed up in Wayne County, Virginia in the 1850s.  Wayne is now the West Virginia county across the Tug Fork from Lawrence County, Kentucky, the ancestral home of the Big Sandy Skaggs descended from Old Peter.  Who were these Scaggs families and were they related to Old Peter?

More Skaggs Indian Stories: Affidavits, Petitions and Applications

Researcher Doug Couch has a web site containing affidavits, petitions and Cherokee applications for Indian tribal membership from Skaggs ancestors claiming to be descended from Indians.

A Valuable Source of Skaggs Research is Back

The Skaggs email list at Rootsweb is probably the single most valuable source of Skaggs genealogy information in existence.  It is a history of email conversations between some of the great Skaggs researchers of all time going back to 1997.  I thought we had lost it when Rootsweb was hacked a couple of years ago, but it's back.

Minutes of the Big Blaine Baptist Church

Many of the early Skaggs settlers of Lawrence County, Kentucky attended the Big Blaine Baptist Church in the 1800s.  Several years ago Lucy G. White transcribed the minutes of meetings of the church membership and posted this transcription to the internet.  The link now appears to be stale.  Several years ago I copied the minutes so I shall post them below the fold for those who are interested.

James Skaggs: Who was this guy?

Thanks to the internet, there is a transcription of the minutes of the Big Blaine Baptist Church by Lucy G. White out there for us to study.  The Big Blaine Baptist Church still exists on KY-32 near Martha, Kentucky.  These church minutes are from the 1800s back to 1821.  I found a James Skaggs that I cannot account for in the known genealogies for Lawrence County, Kentucky.  I need your help in solving this mystery.

Charles Skaggs: How the Dix River got its name

Lyman Draper wrote in The Life of Daniel Boone that in the autumn of 1770 the Long Hunters Joseph Drake and Henry Skaggs led a party of hunters from New River and Holston areas into Kentucky.

"Equipped with three pack-horses for each man, rifles, ammunition, traps, dogs, blankets and salt, dressed in hunting shirts, leggings and moccasins, they took their leave of friends and kindred..."

What Ever Happened to Fort Scaggs?

At the outbreak of the Civil War the Confederates threatened Washington, D.C.  The Union Army designed a ring of forts around Washington to defend the city from Confederate attacks initiated from Virginia or Maryland.  Selby Scaggs, a descendant of Richard Scaggs and Sarah Selby, owned land in northeast D.C. that the government used to build a circular earthwork called Fort Scaggs.

Skaggs Y-DNA Testing Update

Since it's a new year I thought I would give an update on where we stand with Skaggs Y-DNA testing. Based on our testing results to date it appears there are two distinct Skaggs families in America:

• Old Peter, the Longhunters, the Safeway Skaggs, James and Susanna, etc. whose descendants test with a Y-haplogroup of some flavor of R-M417.  These Skaggs match the Keig test-takers from the Isle of Man.
• Descendants of the Thomas Skaggs born 1728 in Maryland who migrated to the Greenbrier region of West Virginia.  These Skaggs test with some flavor of R-M269