Goals:

The book: 'Baird and Beard Families,' by Fermine Baird Catchings, 1918 identified many Scotch Baird families, English Beard families, and Scotch-Irish Baird, Beard and Bard families who lived in America. Since the publication of her book, additional Baird and Beard families living both in America and other parts of the world have been identified and some connections between these families have been established.

The purpose of this project is to scientifically connect families sharing the surname Baird, Beard, and other spelling variants using Y-chromosome microsatellite data. The connections will be based on commonality of haplogroups and their associated haplotypes. Whereas the study will not positively identify your missing Baird or Beard ancestors, it will ultimately provide you with information regarding where you should and should not be searching for them.

Requirements

A Surname Project traces members of a family that share a common surname. Since surnames are passed down from father to son like the Y-chromosome, this test is for males taking a Y-DNA test. Females do not carry their father's Y-DNA and acquire a new surname by way of marriage, so the tested individual  be a male that wants to check his direct paternal line (father's father's father's...) with a Y-DNA12, Y-DNA37, or Y-DNA67 marker test. Females who would like to check their direct paternal line can have a male relative with this surname order a Y-DNA test. Females can also order an mtDNA test for themselves such as the mtDNA or the mtDNAPlus test and participate in an mtDNA project.

Surnames In This Project

Baird, Bard, Beaird, Beard, Beird, Biard, Ward, Mac an Bhaird