Nashville Skeggs Descendants Wanted for DNA Testing

The Skaggs family Y-DNA project is looking for descendants of a Skeggs from the Nashville, Tennessee area.  Male descendants of Thomas Leonard Skeggs (1810-1880) are needed to take a Y-DNA test to identify how this Skeggs family line fits and where they come from.

Marker for Lawrence County, Kentucky Militia Company

Francis "Big Frank" Lemaster was militia captain in 1826 in Lawrence County, Kentucky.  Local residents want to commemorate their service by commissioning a stone monument to the men of that militia company, and they currently are raising funds on Facebook to fund the project.  Some interesting names will go on that monument.

Richard Scaggs, "Chew's Folly" and Y-DNA Testing

Not long ago I wrote a blog post about Richard Scaggs, wife Sarah Selby and their farm "Chew's Folly" on the Maryland Western Shore.  This is an important Skaggs family group because they are so well documented from Sarah Selby's inheritance of "Chew's Folly" in the mid-1700s to the present.  When I was working with Chris Keig from the Isle of Man putting together Skaggs family groups we realized we had several gaps in our Y-DNA testing, a key gap being descendants of Richard Scaggs and Sarah Selby. Well, thanks to a correspondent, Y-DNA testing has provided a surprise regarding this family.

Green County, Kentucky Tax Books and the Long Hunters

A big challenge when researching the Long Hunter Skaggs is the lack of 1790 and 1800 census records. These records were burned by the British when they invaded Washington during the War of 1812 (thanks guys). Tax records can help during this time period in establishing where someone was in a given year. I've noticed that FamilySearch has unlocked the tax records for Green County, Kentucky and it's a gold mine for Skaggs Long Hunter research. 

Richard "Long Hunter" Skaggs and Morgan's Rifles

Richard "Long Hunter" Skaggs was one of the Longhunter brothers, sons of James and Rachel Skaggs of the New River valley of Virginia.  His more famous brother, Henry, is the one we usually think of when we think of adventurers, however, Richard had a well-documented three-year military career during the American Revolution as a member of the 7th Virginia Regiment of Foot (Infantry) and the Provisional Rifle Corps, otherwise known as Morgan's Rifles.