When I first began researching my own Bird family from northwestern New Jersey, I found a lot of
information on people named BIRD, BURD, and BYRD that were either living in New Jersey or descended from
NJ residents. I collected all the data I could find, not knowing which of the various BIRD lines it
pertained to. As I traced my family's migration to other states, I collected data from those states
as well. I also collected data on any collateral lines I found.
Here is the result of my work, which is more a "one-name" study than research on a single family. Some of the
people in my database are not yet connected to anyone else, and others are connected to families that
go back thirteen generations.
First, some notes: Because in my early research I found that the spelling of the name would change from
one document to another for the same person, I changed all the spellings to BIRD in my database. If a person's
name is spelled with a U or Y in many documents, I will make a note of it in their file.
Also, in order to help identify all the persons with the same name, I have given everyone an appproximate
birthdate if I didn't know the real one. They are listed as "abt" on the reports, and were estimated from
marriage dates, ages of siblings, etc. They may be very far off.
Finally, realize that the way I have grouped people into families is really a hypothesis, what seems fair and reasonable
after looking at the "raw data" - census records, birth, death and marriage records and the like, and even these are not necessarily
accurate. There are other researchers who have made different interpretaions of the data, and until more
information is found to support one or the other theory, they are all valid. I have tried not to make too many
leaps of faith, and mention in the web cards where I only think two people are related with very little
support for that position. If you have anything that can add to this database, please pass it on.
| Family Files | This has all of the data. |
| Register Reports | These are for separate family groups |
| Documents | transcripts or JPEGS of some of my sources |
| Bird Families of New Jersey | a brief discussion of the separate lines from colonial NJ |
| Debates | Differences of opinion on various Bird Families |
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