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Archiver > BAIRD > 1999-04 > 0923113185


From: Dorothy L. Baker< >
Subject: Baird = Scottish
Date: Fri, 2 Apr 1999 20:19:45 -0800 (PST)


Donald Whyte's SCOTTISH SURAMES AND FAMILIES does muddy the water
about origins:
"There can be little doubt that the Baird (originally Baards), who first
appear in Scotland as vassals of Robert, grandson of Baldwin de Bigger,
were of Flemish extraction."

We have all seen the references to French and Norman Fr with Bard, de
Barde, Bayard etc, but whatever the "truth" of the beginnings, I
personally simply think Scots for Baird and any Irish Bairds were Scots
Bairds before they got to Irish soil . The earliest Scots who came to
America had either worn out the land or been driven (by enclosures)
from the land areas they had used before to make their living, and many
of them arrived prior to the Rev War------the ones escaping the potato
famine came much later.
Read an interesting piece I can't recall the name of about the "middle
man" who shepherds groups of the early immigrants to the US. Saved his
"job" and the price of his ticket by convincing Scots to come with him
(at the behest of the noble landholders who want no people on the land
to be responsible for or to get in the way of his money-making bigger
herds of sheep), and thrive on land-to-be-had-cheap.
db

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