The descendants of Hans Schmidt (1594-1680) belong to the Y-DNA haplogroup R-BY23442. This mutation happened in one of our paternal ancestors roughly around the year 1600 BCE. This ancestor likely lived in what is today the British Isles. Almost all of the other modern-day families who also descend from the original R-BY23442 ancestor hail from that region: such as a Drake family from England, a Cooper family from Scotland, and a Keating family from Ireland.
Our original R-BY23442 ancestor from circa 1600 BCE was, in turn, part of another, older haplogroup called R-S1026. This even-earlier ancestor of ours, whose Y-DNA mutation started the R-S1026 haplogroup, lived around approximately 2300 BCE. He also probably lived in or near the British Isles, as most of the families in his haplogroup are connected to Scotland, Ireland, and England.
This means that one of our paternal ancestors before Hans Schmidt likely migrated from the British Isles down to the European continent, perhaps in the Medieval Era.
Click the above Y-DNA Chart to see an enlarged, standalone version