About the Project


Looking for a Laird Ancestor? Try the Links Page for Internet Searches

26th August 2008

Please excuse the rather impersonal way of communicating this news, but it is the easiest  way to advise our wider family and friends. Our dear Mother, Sarah's dearly loved Grannie, passed away with the family around her in hospital last Wednesday, 20th August. The funeral took place at her home village Church yesterday. Donations, if desired, to Cancer Research, for example Cancer Research UK. An announcement appeared in The Daily Telegraph on 27th August.
We found these few lines tucked into the front of her Bible, and they were bravely read by Sarah at her funeral:
"If I should go before the rest of you,
break not a flower nor inscribe a stone,
nor, when I am gone, speak in a Sunday voice,
but be the usual selves that I have known.
Weep, if you must; parting is hell,
but life goes on, so sing as well."
Joyce Grenfell

23rd July 2008

Added pictures of the Memorial Chapel at Chepstow Parish and Priory Church of St. Mary, with the picture commemorating the VC of Able Seaman Charles Williams RFR awarded for his valour during the "RIVER CLYDE" landing at Sedd-El-Bahr.

23rd July 2008

Added a picture of the grave of Commander Pringle Stokes RN of "HMS BEAGLE" near Punta Arenas, Chile, taken by Jack Howard on a recent visit.

24th June 2008
New page: The British Invasions of Buenos Aires

22nd April 2008

Added to the page  Remember 51st (Highland) Division at Saint-Valéry-en-Caux David Freeman's photographs  from  his visit to St Valéry-en-Caux, April 2008, with his father who served with 23 Field Regiment, The Royal Artillery, attached to the 51st Division in 1940, and his son, a serving Lance Corporal.

21st April 2008
Added new map of Laird family distribution and audio clip with Scottish pronunciation of Laird  to Laird Origins page and  new map of Haplogroup migration 30-35,000 BP and new links to DNA testing page.

17th March 2008

The Atlantic Conference to be held at Saint Mary's University, Nova Scotia, should bring much needed light to a dark corner in history. More...
 

1st March 2008
 
Our friend Nick Taylor  took part in the Big Battlefield Bike Ride (BBBR) for the charity Help for Heroes which provides support for our wounded.  Click on his picture for his sponsorship page and on the H4H picture for more information about the charity's work.

4th January 2008

I have started making some changes to the 51st (Highland) Division at St Valéry pages thanks to new material, including contemporary press cuttings sent to me by 51st Division veteran's son, Rory Johnston, and Angus Hay, another veteran's son has pointed me back in the direction that I had originally believed, that the Division had the Saltire as a badge in 1940.

18th December 2007
I have been contacted by Fred Kennington whose brother, with many others from Berwick who were Territorials in 7th Battalion The Royal Northumberland Fusiliers (RNF),  and were captured at St-Valéry More...

18th December 2007
Todd J. Wilkinson, President of the Clan Cumming Society of the USA has written in about the Battle of Roslin page with thanks for efforts to inform about this overlooked battle in Scottish history, and we are arranging reciprocal links.

24th November 2007


Donate to the DEC Bangladesh Cyclone Appeal with the British Red Cross

19th October 2007
51st Highland Division at Saint-Valéry-en-Caux.
I am grateful to Rory Johnston for his permission to include details of his father's experience at Saint-Valéry-en-Caux. More...

 

21st September 2007

=

New developments in the Scottish Regiments Issue.

8th August 2007
Aberdeenshire Update

Added new photographs to Aberdeenshire Section: Kildrummy Castle; Glenbuchat Castle; Craigievar Castle; Harthill Castle; the Maiden Stone; Bennachie; the Gordon Stane and Hosie's Well.

7th August 2007
The Battle of Killiecrankie

Added page and photographs on the Battle of Killiecrankie, 27th July 1689, having visited the area on the anniversary of the battle last month.

7th August 2007
Deer on the Road
A friend's unpleasant experience has alerted us to the potential consequences very common experience of hitting deer on the road at night, and the easy solution of a deer whistle. It comes as a real surprise that despite paying road tax, council tax and income tax, we can face the possibility of a large bill for repairs from Scotland TranServ, a private agency responsible for the management and maintenance of North West Scotland's trunk roads. £ 7.50 for a deer whistle is good solution.

3rd August 2007
St Andrew Pilgrim Badge

We first saw an example of this badge 5 years ago but a visit to St Andrews last week took us to where it can be found.  Not as we had expected, at Historic Scotland's Shop at the Cathedral, or at their Visitor's Centre at St Andrews Castle, next to Castlecliffe, where the original was discovered, but at the small shop at
 St Andrews Museum, Kinburn House, run by Fife Council and by the Kilmartin House Museum, Argyll. The reproduction is in plated pewter, by Peter Shorer, and costs £ 9.99.

Selection from Antiquity Reproduction by Peter Shorer
Link to picture of the original

18th March 2007
Laird DNA Project
I have joined the Laird DNA Project as Bruce Laird has noted that another participant was very close to my markers.  There has been a breakthrough in his research as a will from a Richard Laird 1797 of Bogstown Londonderry has been discovered. The will names all the other family members and locates his family origin in Northern Ireland at Tully (fern) in Ramelton County Donegal. He suspects that his "Planter Laird's" came across as part of the Plantation in 1619-1620 to Donegal. Anecdotal evidence is that they may have come from Renfrew in Scotland, where my ancestors are found in the 1841 Census.

6th January 2007
St Columba's Scotland County Arms
 
Added the Arms of Aberdeen, Orkney, Caithness and Renfrew from St Columba's, Pont Street, London, to the relevant pages of the site.

17th December 2006
Laird DNA
I have been contacted by Bruce Laird, from Australia, whose DNA varies from mine by one marker.  His family is from Northern Ireland, and his website is at Laird & Hunter Family Genealogy - Ulster Northern Ireland Londonderry and Letterkenny

19th November 2006
New Pictures from Aghia Sophia

17th August 2006
New Section: Aberdeenshire

A section for the North East, home of my Mother's family.

1st August 2006
Norwegian Vikings on the Wye

It must have been one of their furthest incursions into England when in AD 911 the army of  Eric Blood Axe and  two Jarls, Rognvald and Uhter, landed at Beachley on the River Severn, near Chepstow, and crossed the Forest of Dean and set up their base at Symond's Yat, near Ross-on-Wye.  The story is told in The Book of South Wales, the Wye, and the Coast. First published by Arthur Hall, Virtue & Co., London, 1861. More...

30th July 2006
Family History Development

I have found notes of conversations with my Great Aunt Jean, in about 1980,  at my Mother's home.  These have supplemented the Biography page and added information on my Grandfather, Great Grandfather, Great Great Grandfather and Great Uncles.  Significantly they record that John Laird, of whom we know very little, owned the Dye Works at Clydesdale, Rutherglen, and that his son, John Clydesdale Laird's home was at Kinfauns Terrace, Ibrox. She also told me John Clydesdale's wife was Jean Morris, though the records are of Jane Burke. She also told me John Clydesdale Laird was brought up by his stepmother, Elizabeth Burke, and that his father left him money to see the world, and that he visited the USA before settling down.

29th May 2006
Bergen Page

Updated Bergen page with new pictures, including Scots built Church, the Nykirken.

22nd May 2006
Anniversaries can now be found at the Website of the Scottish Knights Templar, an ongoing project

Have added further pictures from Roslin.

25th March 2006
700th Anniversary of the Coronation of King Robert the Bruce

On 25th March 1306 King Robert the Bruce was crowned King of Scots at Scone Palace, Perthshire, in the presence the Bishops of St Andrews, Glasgow and Moray and the Abbot of Scone, and the Earls of  Atholl, Lennox and Menteith by the Countess of Buchan as representative of the Clan MacDuff. More...

17th March 2006
Highland Division

Added page for the 51st Highland Division at St Côme in 1944.

18th February 2006
Athelstaneford: The Saltire

Added photographs from Athelstaneford to the Legend of the Saltire page from Eddie Ramsay, and a link to Eddie Ramsay's Clan Ramsay website and the new Wikipedia page on the Battle of Kringen page.

20th January 2006
St Andrew's Day petition - the Teaching of Scottish Culture

A petition urging a review of how Scottish literature and history is taught has gone before The Scottish Parliament's Petitions Committee.

30th December 2005
DNA Testing

I am privileged to have a role in the DNA testing programme of Clan Sinclair which is being led by Steve St Clair and Stan St Clair in the USA.  The the results so far have been interesting to say the least. More...

Where in the World?

Click to see where this site is being accessed.

Older News

Campaign for the Real Reel of the 51st

The dance based around the Saltire, Scotland's Flag, and created by the Highland Division, whose sacrifice in France in 1940 it commemorates, is being danced incorrectly by many today, unaware of its significance. More...

Back to the top
 

Project News

Anniversaries can now be found at the Website of the Scottish Knights Templar, an ongoing project "Events this week in Scottish History".

Now hosted by www.easyspace.com, whose service is recommended highly.
E-mail problems  a thing of the past.

"Carpe Diem" - Seize the Day
 
10 Reasons to make the most of what we have, and do something while we can. Who knows what tomorrow may bring ?  More...

WWW www.laird.org.uk