R-BY44771: The Grandfather of the Long Hunter Brothers?

The Skaggs Y-DNA project has tested multiple descendants of Old Peter Skaggs and the Long Hunters.  These testers all descend from a single common ancestor with the R-BY44771 haplogroup.  The genealogies of the test participants indicate that this common ancestor lived in the late 1600s to early 1700s.

Are the Sullivan(t)s related to the Skaggs?

A Sullivan family descendant took a Big Y DNA test at Family Tree DNA and matched the Skaggs for Y-DNA.  This has led us all down a rabbit hole of Sullivan(t) genealogy to try to find out how this tester could be related to the Longhunter branch of the Skaggs family.

Skaggs DNA Testing: Putting It All Together

The Skaggs Y-DNA project has been working diligently testing male volunteers who descend along different Skaggs family lines.  They've been aligning the DNA test results with the ongoing genealogical research effort to identify distinct, yet related, Skaggs families.  The results follow below the fold.

Skaggs DNA Testing: The Long Hunters

The Skaggs Y-DNA project has been working diligently testing male volunteers who descend along different Skaggs family lines.  Volunteers have been tested from the branch of the Skaggs family that descends from the children of James and Rachel Skaggs, known as the Long Hunters.

Two Skaggs Mysteries: Are They Related?

 We have uncovered two Skaggs mysteries from the 1790s that seem to lead to brick walls:

• What ever happened to Piner Skaggs of Queen Anne's County, Maryland?
• How is the Sullivan family related to Old Peter Skaggs and the Long Hunters?

I'll try describing these two mysteries and let you reach your own conclusions below the fold.

Skaggs Family Groups based on DNA Testing

It's time for an update on the Skaggs Y-DNA testing.  We currently have 19 Skaggs who have taken the Big-Y DNA test and are descendants of Viking ancestors from the Isle of Man.  We call these guys R1a Skaggs.  We also have a few other Skaggs who are not part of this Isle of Man family and we call them the R1b Skaggs.  Both are Skaggs, just two completely different families. Both are really interesting, however, in this post I'll discuss the R1a Skaggs and group them into families based on their DNA.