Zombie Killing with the Long Hunters

Does William Skaggs + David Skaggs = William David Skaggs?  I don't think so, even with the New Math, however, somehow the genealogical lines for two of the Skaggs Longhunter brothers got crossed this way and a mutant "William David Skaggs" has taken on a life of his own.  I'm going to risk wading into the shark-infested Long Hunter waters to try to drive a stake through the heart of this zombie.

I've tried to stay out of Longhunter Skaggs genealogy since it's the most documented family group and I've always thought I had little to add.  However, while working with Chris Keig on Skaggs family groups I found this bit of information from a Longhunter Skaggs researcher:

For many years now a number of genealogists have had two particular branches of the James and Rachel Skaggs lineage very misconstrued. The best way to describe this is to say that someone merged the families of David Skaggs (1767-ca.1813) and wife Margaret (ca.1758-1860) with the family of David's first cousin, William Skaggs (ca.1778-aft.1850) and wife Margaret Hoover (bef.1780-ca.1840). When I first began genealogy in 1994 I was given a family group for "William David Skaggs" and wife Margaret Hoover. The list contained MANY children. Among the first things I noticed was that Richard (born 1801), was born more than two years before the marriage of William & Margaret. Another peculiarity of it was that it contained two Johns, one with the middle initial of C., born ca. 1805, the other with the middle initial of D. born 1809. I must add that I didn't do anything about any of this. I accepted it and pushed it aside. A few years later Wanda Sparkman contacted me and enlightened me as to the mistakes that had been made with these two families. It may be that some genealogists have had this correct from the beginning but somewhere along the way someone put William and David together and thus "William David" Skaggs was born. From that point on the records of two different men and their families were merged into one very large family. I have been contacted often and told that I now have this family wrong because other people still have the old data. It is all over World-Connect like that. I hope that I can now clarify these two families and separate them here for all researchers to see and make note of. I will be sending two more messages to the Skaggs list; one discussing David Skaggs and wife Margaret; the other discussing William Skaggs and wife Margaret Hoover. I apologize for the length of them but I wanted to get all of the important details in. Jeremy Johnson

Here are the two parts of the genealogies in question, Jacob Skaggs the youngest Longhunter brother and Henry the eldest, corrected to remove the zombie "William David Skaggs":

1 James Skaggs m. Rachel
     2 Henry Skaggs m. Mary Thompson
          3 David Skaggs m. Margaret  (born 28 Apr 1767 per the Archibald Thompson Diary)
     2 Jacob Skaggs m. Frances Samples
          3 William Skaggs m. Margaret Hoover  (deposed in the 1836 Moses Skaggs Estate Case)

William Skaggs deposition in the Moses Skaggs Estate Case:

The answer of William Skaggs Senr to a Bill filed in chancery by A & J Lewis against him and others  in the Green Circuit Court who for answer say, he is a son and heir at law of Jacob Skaggs, deceased a brother of Moses Skaggs deceased and that he is willing for a decree to be entered in favour of said A & J Lewis for that portion of said Moses Skaggs Estate that may be coming to this deft at the present term of the said Court and having fully answered he prays, to be dismissed &c.
/s/     William Skaggs

Additional reliable detailed information about the David Skaggs and Margaret above can be found at a rootsweb post here.