We have uncovered two Skaggs mysteries from the 1790s that seem to lead to brick walls:
The Skaggs family Y-DNA project is looking for descendants of a Skeggs from the Chicago, Illinois area. Male descendants of Robert Hugh Skeggs (1925-2002) are needed to take a Y-DNA test to identify how this Skeggs family line fits and where they come from.
Geno Skaggs was a blues musician back in the 1960s and 70s. He played bass with the great bluesman John Lee Hooker and separately with his cousin Earl Hooker. Geno even appeared on John Lee Hooker's 1971 album, Endless Boogie, with Steve "Fly Like an Eagle" Miller of Steve Miller Band fame. That's a strange coincidence since Boz Scaggs also played with Steve Miller and I'm not aware that Boz Scaggs and Geno Skaggs ever knew each other, but they both knew Steve Miller.
Since a family of Scaggs originated on the Maryland Eastern Shore I thought I would collect several clips of accents and music from there for everyone's enjoyment. The accents are distinct enough that you can imagine that when ancestors from this part of Maryland moved to places like the mountains of Virginia or Tennessee the locals and younger family members might have thought they were from England, Ireland or Wales.
If you go out to the Wikitree genealogical site to Rachel (Skaggs) Lester there is a mitochondrial DNA test result for one of her descendants. Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) testing is similar to Y-DNA testing, except that the mtDNA is passed only from mother to her children. Male children have the mtDNA but cannot pass it down to their kids. Mitochondrial DNA testing is great for answering questions about your female line.
John B Floyd Skaggs was born 18 May 1853 in the historical Rocky Station district of Lee County, Virginia. It was the area across the Wallen Creek from the town of Pennington Gap. His parents were Jeremiah and Mary Catherine Skaggs and he had five sisters. John B Floyd Skaggs died in the same area 23 August 1929. The Skaggs Y-DNA project has a gap in the testing that can be filled by male descendants of John B Floyd Skaggs.
The Skaggs family Y-DNA project is looking for descendants of a Skeggs from the Nashville, Tennessee area. Male descendants of Thomas Leonard Skeggs (1810-1880) are needed to take a Y-DNA test to identify how this Skeggs family line fits and where they come from.
Francis "Big Frank" Lemaster was militia captain in 1826 in Lawrence County, Kentucky. Local residents want to commemorate their service by commissioning a stone monument to the men of that militia company, and they currently are raising funds on Facebook to fund the project. Some interesting names will go on that monument.
Not long ago I wrote a blog post about Richard Scaggs, wife Sarah Selby and their farm "Chew's Folly" on the Maryland Western Shore. This is an important Skaggs family group because they are so well documented from Sarah Selby's inheritance of "Chew's Folly" in the mid-1700s to the present. When I was working with Chris Keig from the Isle of Man putting together Skaggs family groups we realized we had several gaps in our Y-DNA testing, a key gap being descendants of Richard Scaggs and Sarah Selby. Well, thanks to a correspondent, Y-DNA testing has provided a surprise regarding this family.
