Old Peter Skaggs vs. Richard Damron

I recently found a reference to a court case in October court 1818 in Floyd County, Kentucky involving a lawsuit between Richard Damron and Old Peter. If the link doesn't work the reference is film 1844112, page 544 in vol. A of the Floyd County order books. Remember, at this time Lawrence County had not yet been split from Floyd.  It's interesting who was involved in the lawsuit.

More Skaggs and the Chickamauga Expedition of 1779

A while back I wrote a post about the Chickamauga Expedition of 1779. Basically, it was a water-borne attack on hostile Cherokees by the Virginia militia.  We know from his pension deposition that William Skaggs was a part of the expedition. Some family historians believe that kidnapped white Virginians were rescued from captivity, perhaps even Ruth Skaggs and daughters Rachel Skaggs and Darky Gothrin.  Now we have evidence that the Skaggs Long Hunters, John, Aaron and James Jr. were junior officers or non-commissioned officers under Captain Thomas Mastin on this expedition.

Where did all this weird DNA come from anyway?

Not just Skaggs, but a lot of people with an isolated Appalachian heritage are taking autosomal DNA tests and getting mysterious results.  For example, it seems pretty common that a solid streak of Scandanavian DNA is frequently showing up.  Maybe 1-2 percent.  Where did that come from?  And what about that Iberian or Italian DNA?  How many Scandanavians, Portugese, Spaniards or Italians were in the Appalachian mountains over the last 200 years?  I've been surprised by some theories of why this has happened.

Henry Skaggs and the Catrons

The Revolutionary War veteran Henry Skaggs, born 1759 in South Carolina, had some interesting testimony in his pension application.  This is the Henry we think was son of Aaron Skaggs, possibly a brother to the Longhunters based on his testimony that Henry and Archibald Skaggs were cousins. We know Archibald Skaggs was son of Charles Skaggs the Longhunter. Many researchers believe that Aaron died young enough that he wasn't mentioned in the Moses Skaggs estate papers as one of Moses' brothers.  Anyway, back to the pension application...

Did Isabel "Belle" Skaggs ever exist?

This may be another instance of a Skaggs myth taking on a life of its own. Isabel "Belle" Skaggs was supposed by some to be a daughter of Old Peter, however, there appears to be no evidence to support this.  Nevertheless, Belle Skaggs is in many family trees as Old Peter's daughter and wife of a Joseph Fyffe.