If you are looking for information regarding the origins of the Shugart family in the United States, you have come to the right place.

There are four main branches of the Shugart line. One begins with Old John who moved to North Carolina in the late 1700’s. This Old John, whom I have also called North Carolina John is my branch.

There are two more old lines; one begins with a man whom I call Sheriff Zachariah whilst the other begins with a man whom I call Sheriff Peter. Both Sheriffs were in Pennsylvania in the early 1700’s. The fourth line begins with a John who was born in 1758 and who also lived in Pennsylvania.

As far as I know, all living (and dead) Shugarts trace back to one of these four men.

There is no paper evidence that suggests that these men were related. I speculate that the Sheriffs were brothers. They lived close to one another and apparently rotated terms of being Sheriff.

I also speculate that the John who was born in 1758 was a son of the John who moved to North Carolina. When ‘Old’ John moved to NC, the presumed son was an adult, had established roots in PA and did not go out west is my assumption.

While both Old John and presumed son John were both practicing Quakers, there is no evidence that either of the Sheriffs were Quaker.

We can speculate that Old John and the two Sheriffs were all brothers. Though I am no DNA expert, I did manage to find descendants of all four lines and had each line’s DNA tested. The DNA does suggest that there was some recent common ancestor that they all had that tied them together genetically.

Finally, it has been widely speculated that Shugarts have Germán roots. This is highly unlikely. The best assumption I have is we have paternal English roots. I personally think that the original spelling of our name may have been Sugar or Suger.

There is nothing found to date which traces any of the lines back to Europe. All history of our line(s), thus far discovered, starts in America.

With this background, I will describe the links if you are interested in delving further.

(Press Ctrl+F to search within each document)

1. The first link is a book that I wrote during Covid. The first several chapters deal with the very beginnings of the Shugarts in Pennsylvania around 1700. In my book, I discuss a man who might be the original Shugart immigrant and who might be the father of my Old John. In my book, I also make the assumption that the John born in 1758 was a son of Old John.
2. The second link is a high-level view of all the descendants that I know of from Old John, Sheriff Peter or. Sheriff Zak. In this link I have made an assumption that these three men were brothers and were sons of the ‘original’ immigrant. I have done this more as a matter of convenience so that if you have a name of a descendant, you can see if that person is in this and file and then can determine which of the main lines he or she fits into.
3. The 3rd link is the detail that I have on a man who may be the original immigrant and may be the father of NC John and the two Sheriffs. (He also may not be our forefather)
4. The 4th link is the detailed view of the NC John (Old John) with notes and sources.
5. The 5th link is the detailed view of Sheriff Zachariah with notes and sources.
6. The 6th link is the detailed view of Sheriff Peter with notes and sources.
7. The 7th link is a short essay that I wrote that addresses the question "Are we German?"
8. The 8th link discusses what information that I have gleaned regarding the DNA of the Shugart lines.

I hope you enjoy. To the extent you find errors or wish to make additions, I am definitely wanting to hear from you. I can be reached at beckyshugart@yahoo.com if you wish to reach out to me.