Scruggs Family Association Research
The first two objectives of the Scruggs Family Association are:
- To search out, record, and preserve the history and genealogy of the Scruggs Family in America.
- To research the ancestry of the earliest Scruggs ancestors in America, England, and Scotland.
From its inception, SFA has focused on research to uncover and make known Scruggs history. Some SFA members, though certainly not all, are committed researchers, and we invite all our members to get involved in this way.
What are particular research topics of interest to Scruggs Family Association?
SFA maintains its own family tree database that includes basic facts and maintains multimedia folders with copies of related original documents. Associated with this are paper files maintained by the SFA database administrator/archivist and organized by end-of-line ancestors. We are interested in knowing the Scruggs lineage of every SFA member. Some of our research findings have been very helpful in tying certain lines together.
- Strictly using documentary sources, we have been able to link over 40% of our members to Henry Scruggs, a man born in the early 1660s and the presumed son of Richard, the earliest Scruggs in Virginia.
- Through Y-DNA testing, we know that over 10% of our tested members whose lines are not yet traced back to Henry do indeed share his Y chromosome.* We seek documents that will provide the missing links.
We are missing life facts about Richard Scruggs, the earliest Scruggs in Virginia. Headright was claimed on Richard Scruggs in 1655. He appears occasionally in land records and other documents, but we do not know when he was born and died. We have never found a marriage record or birth/baptismal records for any children.
We have researched records on Scroggs/Scruggs in England and have identified some in the late 16th century and the first half of the 17th century with the name of Richard. We continue our interest in identifying exactly which Richard Scruggs came to Virginia in the mid-17th century, as well as the family group into which he was born.
While we seek to know the names, dates, and places of persons appearing on the Scruggs family tree, we are also interested in the life histories of these ancestors.
Many specific Scruggs branches or individuals come to life in the pages of our semi-annual publication, Searching for Scruggs.
* For information on the SFA Y-DNA research, consult the separate section of this website on this topic.