Dating old vs new
Prior to Sept. 3, 1752, the Protestant countries used the Julian calendar. On that date, England and its dominions all adopted the Gregorian calendar. In actuality, Sept. 3rd didn't exist. The date jumped from Sept. 2, 1752 to Sept. 14, 1752. This was due to a lot of leap days that were inserted over the centuries that shouldn't have been. For more on this, read http://www.norbyhus.dk/calendar.html.
Our stricter Puritan ancestors, and the Quakers, did not like using the names of the months and days as they were all pagan names. So, they used numerical dates. The date was first, then the month and then the year. (This is still the way the majority of the world writes their dates.) To make this more confusing, the first month was March. So, the date above, 15 (3) 1647, would be 15 May 1647. This date would have been written 15: 3m: 1647 in the Essex county VRs. There were differences in how the editors handled the printing.
The first day of the year, what we would call New Year's Day, was March 25th. However, for dating purposes, the entire month of March was considered the first month.
That gets into dual dating, i.e. 4 Jan 1677/8. This date could also have been written 4: 11m: 1677. The dual date indicates that the date is the end of 1677 and is also the first of 1678. The dual dating is not a modern convention for people who have only known one dating system. Our ancestors actually wrote these dates this way.
An O.S. on a headstone indicates the date was prior to Sept. 1752 and was not changed to reflect the change that occurred in 1752. As most people are aware, our ancestors seldom put a death date on a headstone. They would put the person's age in years, months and days. I have never found out if the computation for those whose lives spanned the change took into account the 12 days that were dropped.
This is an important topic. The dates that various countries changed are scattered from 1582 right up into the 20th century. There is a table of dates for just about every country's change and how it affected their calendar. You should be aware of these dates as you pursue your ancestry from other countries.
This is the calendar date conversion from the Roman/old style started 3/25/ PRE 1752 and the New Style (Gregorian) calendar which started 1/1/1752.
Old Style....................................new style
March................1st mo..............January
April................2d mo...............February
May..................3rd.................March
June.................4th.................April
July.................5th.................May
Aug..................6th.................June
Sept.................7th.................July
Oct..................8th.................August
Nov..................9th.................September
Dec.................10th.................October
Jan.................11th.................November
Feb.................12th.................December
Submitted by Zos
Be sure to visit Looking 4 Kin Genealogy Links and Chat.
While there stop into Looking 4 Kin Genealogy Chat.
Our stricter Puritan ancestors, and the Quakers, did not like using the names of the months and days as they were all pagan names. So, they used numerical dates. The date was first, then the month and then the year. (This is still the way the majority of the world writes their dates.) To make this more confusing, the first month was March. So, the date above, 15 (3) 1647, would be 15 May 1647. This date would have been written 15: 3m: 1647 in the Essex county VRs. There were differences in how the editors handled the printing.
The first day of the year, what we would call New Year's Day, was March 25th. However, for dating purposes, the entire month of March was considered the first month.
That gets into dual dating, i.e. 4 Jan 1677/8. This date could also have been written 4: 11m: 1677. The dual date indicates that the date is the end of 1677 and is also the first of 1678. The dual dating is not a modern convention for people who have only known one dating system. Our ancestors actually wrote these dates this way.
An O.S. on a headstone indicates the date was prior to Sept. 1752 and was not changed to reflect the change that occurred in 1752. As most people are aware, our ancestors seldom put a death date on a headstone. They would put the person's age in years, months and days. I have never found out if the computation for those whose lives spanned the change took into account the 12 days that were dropped.
This is an important topic. The dates that various countries changed are scattered from 1582 right up into the 20th century. There is a table of dates for just about every country's change and how it affected their calendar. You should be aware of these dates as you pursue your ancestry from other countries.
This is the calendar date conversion from the Roman/old style started 3/25/ PRE 1752 and the New Style (Gregorian) calendar which started 1/1/1752.
Old Style....................................new style
March................1st mo..............January
April................2d mo...............February
May..................3rd.................March
June.................4th.................April
July.................5th.................May
Aug..................6th.................June
Sept.................7th.................July
Oct..................8th.................August
Nov..................9th.................September
Dec.................10th.................October
Jan.................11th.................November
Feb.................12th.................December
Submitted by Zos
Be sure to visit Looking 4 Kin Genealogy Links and Chat.
While there stop into Looking 4 Kin Genealogy Chat.
Labels: Gregorian calendar, Julian calendar
posted by Just_M at
8:31 PM
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