Sorry I just found this great article ~ relevant snippet
24 BAIRD AND BEARD FAMILIES
He says he has been unable to trace them.
[Probably most of them emigrated to America or Australia. The line of William
of Letterkenney is herein traced and probably that of John. The letter giving William's
record says his brother John's family settled at Bardstown, Ky.]
The Barde or Beard family of Ireland goes back to the time of Queen Eliza-
beth or earlier. The Beards or Bairds of Queens County spring from William
Barde or Beard, who was in Ireland under Sir Henry Sidney, Lord Deputy,
and must have borne an important part in the advance of the English army from
the Pale in 1557. As early as 1568 he was granted a messuage in Maryborough
comprising seven cottages, besides sixty acres arable and forty pasture, wood and
underwood in Colte; sixteen acres in Ballycorballe, all in Queen's County. He
may have been in Maryborough as early as the reign of Mary. 1 In 1570 Queen
Elizabeth granted the inhabitants of Maryborough a charter and corporation.
William Bard was probably a native of England. He died about 1583, as appears
from a grant (under a commission dated 1 7th Jan., 26th Eliz.) to Patrick Crosby,
Gent., of the wardship and marriage of Thomas Beard, son and heir of William
B., late of Colte.
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Full Article
https://archive.org/stream/bairdbeardfamili1918catc/bairdbeardfamili1918catc_djvu.txtTara
