Our Brown family had it’s beginnings in the area that is today called the Fertile Crescent. The male Y DNA markers show that our DNA originated in the area of the Roman Empire that is today Iraq, Syria and Turkey. There is also evidence of our DNA from the earlier centuries in the Levant and Anatolia. A significant number of the Jewish population in the Middle East and mostly Shepardic Jews also have the same DNA markers. There is also some evidence that our DNA markers were found in Greece as early at the 2nd Century B.C.E. as some immigrated west toward Europe. There is some evidence today as well that our DNA markers were prevalent in certain groups of Herdsmen and Farmers as far back as the Bronze Age.

Our DNA, most likely, was brought to Scotland during the period when Emperor Hadrian ruled over Rome. Hadrian sent two legions of soldiers from what is today Hama, Syria to guard the northern borders of England from what Hadrian considered to be the “northern barbarians” or the Scottish. The Syrian soldiers were archers in the Roman army. Our DNA is very rare in Scotland. The English have unearthed graves from Syrians that date back to the Roman occupation. Among these is more than likely one of our early ancestors. Many years later when the Roman armies began to retreat from Britain the generations born there remained. Again, that is how our rare DNA got to Scotland.

There were also a number of boatmen who served in the Roman army that were stationed along the Tigris and Euphrathes rivers in what became modern day Iraq. These boatmen were sent to northern England to guard the borders from invasion by the Scots. There were also Syrian archers that played a role in the years centering around the building of Hadrian’s wall. It is most likely that our DNA arrived in Scotland through the Iraqi boatmen or the Syrian archers. Apparently, our Roman soldier married a Scots woman and he must have decided to stay in Scotland after the tenure with the Roman army was finished.

There is also some evidence that the Roman soldiers form what is today Hama, Syria might have trained for the mission the Britain in Spain. We cannot be sure how long our soldier trained in Spain, but it was probably a few years. It is possible that he married in Spain and went to Scotland with his wife, but such marriages were discouraged because of the mission of the Roman soldiers.