Sims Settlement

In the fall of 1806 a group of settlers led by William and James Sims traveled from east Tennessee on flatboats down the Tennessee River and up the Elk River to the area of present-day Limestone County, Alabama.  You can read their story from the state historical marker here.

DNA Testing: Is Peter Skaggs related to the Long Hunters?

Several descendants of Old Peter Skaggs have written to say that they are surprised that they don't have DNA matches with descendants of the Long Hunter Skaggs, e.g. Charles, Henry, etc.  Well, here is some interesting news.  There may be some DNA evidence to tie Old Peter to the Long Hunters.

Skaggs Family Groups

Since a limited amount of DNA testing has indicated that there are two or more distinct Skaggs families in the United States I have decided to try and separate the known Skaggs families into groups so that when DNA results come in we know which family we are talking about.  Here goes:

DNA Testing: Skaggs as One Big Happy Family?

I've been searching the Internet for genetic haplogroup results from Skaggs DNA testing, looking for Skaggs, Scaggs, Skeggs, Staggs, etc. thinking that perhaps all came from the same Y-chromosome haplogroup.  You can look up what a haplogroup is for yourself, but basically it's a big extended family that has the same Y-chromosome mutation.  The Y-chromosome is very stable so these mutations don't occur very often and a haplogroup can be stable for thousands of years.  That's how these testing services can say your cousin Bubba is related to Atilla the Hun, besides his table manners.  My theory has been that the Skaggs are all from the same haplogroup.

Famous Skaggs: The Real-Life Maverick Brothers

Remember the Maverick brothers from 1960s TV?  Bret and Bart Maverick were brothers in the Old West who were constantly getting into and out of trouble, usually involving money, women or both.  Well, there were two Skaggs brothers, E.M. and E.H., that were a lot like these guys in the same time period.