Although he didn’t know it, DNA Adam in Africa 60,000 years ago was a Hays. He’s actually related to the vast majority of the people alive today so he has a pretty long list of surnames. They were stone age hunter-gatherers when 60,000 years ago a DNA Adam son, a Hays male ancestor, started to migrate north out of Africa. 50,000 years ago the Hays cousins, the C Haplogroup, went west out of Africa over the tip of India and up the Asian coast to North America, the first settlers to that continent. When the Hays sons reached Asia 35,000 years ago, around present day Uzbekistan, cousins in Haplogroup Q went west northwest while the Hays, in the R Haplogroup, continued north. Both The Hays R Haplogroup and cousins Q Haplogroup were still hunter-gatherer societies, dependent on climate and the movement of large game animals, about 11,000 years ago when Q went into North America at present day Alaska .
The Hays R Haplogroup first split into R1 and R2 (some estimate about 25,000 years ago) and then the R1 split into R1a and R1b (some estimate about 18,500 years ago), with R1b being my (and many others) Hays line. The R1b Hays continued to migrate west into Europe. The climate at the time was much cooler than now due to the last Ice Age with glaciers that grew and receded back and forth from 110,000 to 12,500 years ago. In Scotland 24,000 years ago the ice was over a mile thick and Britain was connected to mainland Europe due to reduced sea levels from the glacier and migrations of people by foot in and out and in could occur. Reduced sea levels due to glaciation opened up the Bering Land Bridge, Beringia, between present day Siberia and Alaska and about 12,000 to 15,000 years ago people began to migrate in and out of North America.
Glaciers and climate continued to impact movement of people. The Q Haplogroup crossed into North America and continued to migrate south and east settling North and South America. The Hays R1b Haplogroup continued further west into Europe. As warming occurred 12,000 years ago the glaciers began to melt and recede and ocean levels began to rise. By 6000 years ago the British Isles were separate from mainland Europe by the English Channel and Beringia was under water.
The flooding of Beringia separated North America from Asia and migrations into North America stopped, but the Q Haplogroup continued their migration south and east across 2 continents. 90% of American Indians carry the Q Haplogroup. As evidence of the America’s being separated from Asia and Europe, canines were domesticated from grey wolves by the hunter-gatherers some 14,000 years ago. Travelers over Beringia brought dogs to North America and DNA studies have shown they were related to dogs in Siberia, but were distinct from European dog lines. Among other herd animals, ancient horses originally from North America died out in North America but they continued in Asia. North and South American civilizations remained isolated from the civilizations of Eurasia and did not benefit from any advances in Eurasia culture and developed on their own.
About 9000 years ago farming was developed in the fertile crescent in Mesopotamia (present day middle east). Cereal crops (wheat and barley), lentils, peas and chickpeas were cultivated for food and flax was grown for oil. Goats and sheep were domesticated as were chickens and pigs in China and cattle in the Near East. Farming and pastoralism created a more sedentary lifestyle but successive generations would require more land in temperate zones to farm and graze on. Stone age tools were improved on and pottery making developed to store grains and seeds.
Farming increased birth rates as children were weaned earlier onto a grain diet (mush). Villages and town centers (tribes and clans) would develop for social gathering, government, and religious activities and as a gathering point for common defense against raiding. Increased populations increased the need for more land to farm and thus encouraged migration. Genetic diversity within a village would be maintained by marriages between two villages. This would build alliances and help prevent tribal and regional conflict. Farming would migrate west into Europe, just as the R1b Haplogroup and the Hays did.
About 6000 years ago (4000 BCE) horses were domesticated on the Western Asian Steppes. Mankind emerged from the Stone Age and into the Bronze Age about 3000 BCE. Wheeled vehicles, including war chariots, and metal weapons and tools were developed (the Yamnaya Culture). Advances in the tools of war and the tools of agriculture occurred as societies moved from the Bronze Age into the Iron Age. These “Metal Age Invaders” moved into Europe and mixed with the European Farming Cultures. Haplogroup R1b and subclade M269 were common in all of western Europe with 110 million men carrying the M269 marker today.
Allistair Moffat in “The Scots: A Genetic Journey” explains that the migration of the M269 subclade corresponds to the advancement of farming. Seeds of founder crops, domesticated animals in tow, and farming knowledge being necessary for the advancement of farming, he believes that the advance of farming was concurrent with the migration of men and not only the migration of knowledge by itself. He believes that the explosion of the M269 marker which coincides with the development of farming across Europe was by those who moved and took a local as a wife. The larger farm families and the need for new lands for sons to farm would seem to support this theory.
About 800 BCE the Hays and the R1b Haplogroup, M269 subclade would be in the Italian Alps (part of the Halstatt Culture 800-450 BCE) with migration continuing into central and western Europe (the La Tene Culture 450-1 BCE). The Iron Age started about 1200 BCE and in Europe about 700 BCE. Iron improved farm implements greatly. The development of steel from iron as we approached the Common Era (CE) greatly improved war implements, both weapons and defensive armor and shields.
The Halstatt Culture were Celtic, speaking a Proto-Celtic language, and they had no written records. They had a societal hierarchy of slaves, soldiers, farmers, and craftsmen under a Chieftain who ruled from fortifications on top of a mound. There was a hierarchy of Chiefs and Kings above them. Horses, wagons and chariots were used in war with soldiers armed with sword, spear, and wearing body armor. Iron ploughs improved agricultural production and the tribes traded goods as far away as Greece and China. The Halstatt Culture evolved into the La Tene Culture.
The Hays line continued their migration west into Normandy and from there came into Scotland with the Norman Conquest. The M269 subclade occurs in 70% of Scottish Men, including the Hays. For 800 years the Hays stayed in the Scottish Lowlands. Persecution for their Presbyterian Religion and their Scottish Ancestry fostered one final move westward in the 1600’s into Northern Ireland for about 2 generations. Here they would again suffer persecution and want of necessities and so they looked to again migrate west over the Atlantic Ocean, a risky adventure, but one which might provide liberty of conscious and opportunity for them and their children.
Little did they know that the travel west to America would put them face to face with the Haplogroup Q cousins that decided east over west 35,000 years ago. And that the landing on the East coast of North America was only the beginning of another migration west, this one across America, pioneers, farmers, and soldiers, on a 200 year journey which won’t end until the Pacific Ocean is reached.