Current Y-DNA testing points to Richard Skaggs who married Catherine Brockman as the first Skaggs ancestor in the R-FT48276 haplogroup. Richard was the eldest son of Aaron Skaggs and Sarah Lyon and married Catherine "Caty" Brockman in Adair County, Kentucky on 17 September 1804. According to Skaggs historians, Richard tried to lead a pioneer expedition to Texas in the 1830s but must have taken a wrong turn somewhere because he ended up in Illinois.
Richard was born about 1781 in Virginia, most likely Washington County in the western part of the state. He moved with his parents to Kentucky (then a part of Virginia) and his father showed up there in the tax records of Nelson County in 1787. Richard appeared in the 1810 census of Adair County, Kentucky and he moved to Grayson County by 1820. He ends up in Edmonson County in 1830 after Edmonson was formed from part of Grayson County. Wife Caty may have died during childbirth in 1834, so Richard married the wife of Caty's nephew (Thomas Brockman), Mahala Turner-Brockman in Montgomery Co., Illinois (March 7, 1835). Richard left Mahala in Illinois and moved to Pulaski County, Missouri and married third wife Polly there in 1837. Richard married his fourth wife, Winnie, a couple of months later but hadn't received a divorce from Polly. He was charged with bigamy, the first case of its kind in Pulaski County.
“The first case of bigamy in Pulaski (1839) was one of the most pathetic cases on record. It was, it seems a case of ignorance as "old" Richard Skaggs and his wife separated, and as the years went by the old man, who was generally well-respected, concluded to get married again and seemed ignorant that something else besides a separation was necessary to release him from his former wife. He was found guilty, and sentenced to three months in the county jail and fined $250. A young man, V.B. Hill, now venerable, was standing in the blacksmith shop while the handcuffs were being riveted on the trembling wrists of the decrepit old man (Richard supposedly wet his pants). "Ignorance of the law is no excuse." John and Elizabeth Drury followed this case with an action for the first divorce in Pulaski County.” (Source: "History of Laclede, Camden, Dallas, Webster, Wright, Texas, Pulaski, Phelps and Dent counties, Missouri," page 124)
The R-FT48276 genealogy of the test subjects follows:1 R-FT48276 Richard Skaggs (1781-1865)
+ Caty Brockman
2 Aaron Skaggs (1807-1852)
+ Jemima Thomas
3 George Skaggs (1851-1900)
+ Florence Simpson
4 Arthur Byron Skaggs (1878-1938)
+ Eva Delia Deputy
5 Robert Harold Skaggs (1922-2000)
2 William Scaggs (1816-1860)
+ Nancy Harrington
3 Alfred Skaggs (1847-1928)
+ Martha Ann Short
4 William Richard Skaggs (1871-1953)
+ Belle Hardesty
5 Howard Arden Skaggs (1922-1999)
2 Joshua Skaggs (1834-1874)
+ Martha Smith
3 John Franklin Skaggs (1864-1952)
+ Anna Ida Meickel
4 John Joshua Scaggs (1898-1978)
+ Eva May Phelger
5 John Roy Scaggs (1925-1990)
3 Andrew Jackson Scaggs (1872-1918)
+ Elizabeth Anne Lochmann
4 Elmer Edward Scaggs (1911-1987)
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