When it comes to dates – there are lots of rules and lots of exceptions. We've all experienced coming across a date of 08/11/1804 and trying to decide if it is August 11 or November 8. Here are a few common tools and rules that you can use to have a better chance of getting it right.
The first thing that the family historian has to understand is that we all don't use the same calendar. Pope Gregory XIII authorized the Gregorian calendar way back in 1582. Before that, people used the Julian calendar that dated back to Caesar's time. However, things get more complicated because countries didn't all adopt the new calendar at the same time. In fact, England and America didn't adopt the new calendar until 1752. Other countries were even later – Russia in 1918 and Greece as late as 1923. The internet has made adjusting for these different calendars much easier. I found a website http://www.rosettacalendar.com/ that converts calendar dates between the Gregorian, Julian and Hebrew calendars. However, that's not the only problem with dates. Many countries, like England up until 1752, started the new year on March 25th, a date that was known as Lady Day. Others started the new year on December 25th. So you can see how the dilemma of recording the correct date can become very complicated.
The most important advice I can give is record the date exactly the way you find it in the original document. Then use the following rules to clarify the date as much as possible:
- Record any conversion that you make in square brackets [ ];
- Be sure to note the method and the tool that you used to convert the dates, such as Julian to Gregorian - http://www.rosettacalendar.com;
- If you are not certain about a date then use symbols to denote the issue;
- c. or abt. to show about;
- bef. to show before;
- aft. to show after; or
- bet. to show between.
- In European records 08/11/1804 is 8th of November and in US records it's August 11th; and
- On your family tree charts record dates in the European style and record them in long form – 8 November 1804
There is a growing movement to move to the International Standard Organization date standard. This ISO standard that some people are adopting shows dates as yyyy-mm-dd. This format has a number of benefits for the amateur family historian. It makes the dates easy to read and easy to sort since the oldest dates sort to the top easily and there's no confusion between November 8 and August 11. I have adopted this format and found it to be very easy to implement in my record keeping.
Here's a few other websites and tools that you can use to work with dates:
- Date calculators (sometimes called perpetual calendars) show the calendar for any month year that you need. Try http://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/monthly.html for a quick and easy calendar;
- Day calculators allow you to add or subtract years, months and days from a known date – when the tombstone shows died at age 31 years, 4 months and 10 days. Try http://www.timeanddate.com/date/dateadd.html to calculate the date of death;
- Duration calculators calculate the number of days between two dates. Try http://www.timeanddate.com/date/duration.html to see how many days you have been alive; and
- Another tool like the rosettacalendar is http://www.albion.edu/english/calendar/. This calculator shows the conversion between old Julian and the new Gregorian calendars as well as showing ecclesiastical dates for any year.
As you can see, dates can quickly get out of hand. If you follow the tips I gave you and carefully document the date from the original document, and then use the tools outlined above you should be able to successfully unscramble your family's timeline. Try them out and be sure to let us know what works for you.
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