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UPDATE ON BAIRD HERITAGE

December 2021
 
In my immediate family, our Scottish heritage has always been important. We three siblings who founded Baird Heritage in 2013 are part of a direct Baird male line descended from John Baird who came to New Jersey as a 4-year indentured servant in 1683. Mike, the eldest sibling has two sons and two grandsons who will continue the direct Baird line.
 
We have participated in and belonged to Bairdly groups and events. We have sponsored Baird tents at Highland Games, were multi-generational members of Clan Baird Society Worldwide, served on their ill-fated Chief Search Committee, traveled extensively throughout Scotland, and spent countless hours in archives researching records on Bairds and those families who married into the Baird branches. While Mike concentrated on our specific line I became fascinated in all the various branches of Bairds in Scotland. 
 
As a former banker for both Wells Fargo Bank and Barclays Bank International, I was lucky enough to advance to a management position where my job was to locate missing money and put it back where it belonged. (You might be surprised to know the vast sums that go missing and the occasional incidents of large-scale embezzlement that occur in the banking industry!) Relentless determination to seek out the facts and the root of a problem best defines my work ethic during my banking career and this was the training ground from which I honed my research skills. 
 
Once retired I devoted my time to Baird research. Along the way, I began to correspond with Sir James Andrew Gardiner Baird, 11th Baronet of Saughtonhall. I was quite impressed with him as I grew to realize he was the first person I’d met who had acquired a more extensive library of Baird research than I had and had worked on his research for more than twenty years. Once he realized my research had merit, he was generous with his own. I’ve also been aided by, and have great respect for, Scotland’s Court of the Lord Lyon as they have been invaluable all along the way. 
 
As the reputation of Baird Heritage grew, in 2020 our new commander, Richard Holman-Baird, invited me to become a founding member of his Clan Council Advisory Committee. This proved quite illuminating. As it turned out, Commander Richard Holman-Baird, who has been made permanent president of Clan Baird Society Worldwide, Convener Debra Baird, and other CBSW Board Members did not intend the committee to ‘advise’ but rather was an attempt to get we Baird leaders to grant Commander Holman-Baird control over all Baird clanspeople around the world and all Baird groups and then be granted the power to enact punishment for those who break his rules - right down to preventing individual clanspeople from wearing the tartan or attending Highland Games or if a website/group, forcing them to turn over control and assets to him & CBSW. In addition, Commander Holman-Baird, Convener Debra Baird, CBSW Board members Isaac Baird, and others are seeking control of the entire Clan of Baird by attempting to prevent a grant of chiefship to anyone they cannot control and keep Holman-Baird commander for as long as possible. 
 
It was only my intervention, in writing to the Lyon Court to ask them if it was within a commander’s jurisdiction to enact such power that eventually sunk the issue when the Court wrote to Commander Holman-Baird to inform him he was overstepping his authority as a commander and to remind him he was appointed to search for the rightful heir to the chiefship and then support that person’s petition to the Court. My seeking authoritative advice may be why Commander/CBSW President Richard Holman-Baird and Convener Debra Baird would not renew my CBSW membership last year and sent me a refund of my dues. The Commander and CBSW Board does not allow debate. Clearly they exercise two options only:  Pay up & shut up or be ostracized. 
 
As a result of Commander Richard Holman-Baird and his CBSW Board’s clear desire to (1) control all things Baird (2) hide facts about the current petition for the chiefship submitted by Sir James, and (3) manipulate historical facts, Sir James invited five of the Clan Baird Advisory Committee members, including my brother Mike, and myself to form our own Alliance and website so that Bairds would have a place to get the word out about Sir James’ Petition and also provide an overview of historical Baird facts.
 
As far as the research, I feel fortunate that I do not have a vested interest in any specific Baird line. It allows me to merely seek the truth and let the chips fall where they may. One truth became evident, and here I quote Professor Emeritus of the University of Cambridge, Dr. Andrew Wallace-Hadrill:
 
The world we live in is full of misinformation as we have learned spectactularly in recent years, you know, people invent truths. You have to be skeptical.
 
His statement hits home. The six of us on the ClanBaird.scot Alliance are up against behemoths in the form of Commander Holman-Baird and the Board of Clan Baird Society Worldwide. They so fear we will expose Bairds to the real truths, as opposed to being force-fed their invented truths, that merely by launching our clanbaird.scot website they sought to destroy us rather than embrace us into the fold of collective Clan Baird groups. Like schoolyard bullies, both Commander Holman-Baird and Convener Debra Baird posted letters on Facebook that were full of ridicule and lies about us. But the most egregious fact is that the letters were intended to intimidate you and all clanspeople by telling you not to go to our website and that we are not ‘authorized.’  “People invent truths.”
 
And now, a few weeks ago, Baird Heritage was targeted. Someone accessed a backdoor to Baird Heritage and erased most of our pdfs. This was a directed and specific attack. Who is so afraid of the truth?  I put my heart and soul into my historical documents, I cite sources and endeavor to be as accurate as possible with the Baird information I uncover and publish. It is so regrettable that the truth, honesty and fairplay induce such a level of fear in some people that they seek to destroy rather than mitigate their own insecurity. 
 
I’ve read some great stories of Scottish Bairds who have defied the odds against them. In particular, I reflect on Robert Barde, who fought the English. So successful was he that even when captured, the English King felt compelled to caution his jailers to take extra care of Robert. He remained in prison for years. When finally, his ransom was paid and he was released, Scotland’s new King, Robert the Bruce, rewarded him with the barony of Cambusnethan. I will think of him as we rebuild Baird Heritage and keep in mind that if he could endure such harsh treatment, surely, we at Baird Heritage can endure a little adversity. 
 
Karen Baird Vierra