Are the Staggs related to the Skaggs?

We're getting a bunch of autosomal DNA matches between Staggs and Skaggs testers.  Both families appear to have ancestors from the Virginia Northern Neck and Southern Maryland.  We are looking for descendants of the following Staggs families who might be interested in Y-DNA testing to see if their Staggs line matches any of our documented Skaggs lines:

West Virginia Staggs

1  John Stagg (-1797)

     2  George Stagg (1766-1844)

          3  Christopher Staggs (1797-1858)

               4  Otho Staggs (1835-1913)

                    5  John Wesley Staggs (1868-1929)

                         6  Ortho Thomas Staggs (1896-1927)

Fleming County, Kentucky Staggs

1  Joseph Stagg (-1816)

     2  Joseph Staggs (1782-1860)

          3  Josiah W Staggs (1817-1894)

               4  John Barber Staggs (1862-1903)

                    5  Santford Staggs (1889-1979)

We would like to combine Staggs DNA testing with our existing Skaggs DNA testing to determine if the two families are actually related, even though they have different last names.  Any relationship would likely be back to early 1700s Virginia and/or Maryland, so the Y-DNA testing is our best bet.

If you are a male Staggs from either of these lines and are interested in testing you can contact the Group Administrator here.

Where was "Horse Pasture?"

William Skaggs, the eldest son of James "The Long Hunter" Skaggs applied for a military pension in 1832 for service during the American Revolution.  In that pension application William stated that he was born in North Carolina.  "...the said Skaggs further states that he was born in the state of North Carolina the County he does not remember; it was near a place called the horse pasture as he learned from his mother..."  Where was Horse Pasture?

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.

John Skaggs and the Battle of King's Mountain

by General Joseph Graham

Published in The Southern Literary Messenger, September 30, 1845.

"The following account of the battle of King's Mountain is a copy of the original paper, drawn up by the late General Joseph Graham, father of the present governor of North Carolina, of Lincoln county, North Carolina, the county in which the site of the battle is located. The accompanying plan of the battle is a copy by a young lady of Carolina from the original taken by Gen. Graham on the ground. This graphic account, given by an uninterested individual, of the battle that led to the retreat of Cornwallis, then on his advance through Carolina, may afford interesting information to your readers, that love to dwell upon the scenes of the Revolution."