GENBRIT-L Archives

Archiver > GENBRIT > 1998-08 > 0901991162


From: Dan of AIA< >
Subject: Re: Date Formats
Date: 1 Aug 1998 17:06:02 GMT


John Stark wrote:

>"To be thorough, each date should be qualified
>to show which dating system is being referred
>to. I don't know of any standards for this - if
>you know differently let me know. A day
>without learning is a day wasted!"

I agree with you totally.

There are and have been standards relative to qualifing dates as to their
calendar system. The two oldest standards are "Old Style" and "New Style"
which refer to the Julian calandar and the Gregorian calendar system,
respectively. These terms were adopted and used extensively since at least the
mid 1700s. In writing, "Old Style" was consistently abbreviated "O.S." and
"New Style" was consistently abbreviated "N.S." Old documents created around
the time of the calendar change frequently included these abbreviations.

Now, in the age of the computer, we abbreviate "Old Style" simply as "OS" and
"New Style" simply as "NS". If a double date is used (i.e., both the Julian
and the Gregorian year are given), then the abbreviation "DD" is used.

The abbreviation for the years before the start of the Julian calendar is "BC"
and the abbreviation for the French Republican calendar is obviously "FR". The
recommended abbreviation for the Jewish/Hebrew calendar is "JH".

Most "modern" date entries (that have a conventional month name such as "Jan",
"Apr", or "Oct") for most countries can be assumed to be Gregorian and not use
the "NS" suffix. However, any date prior to the date that the country changed
its calendar systems must be qualified with the applicable abbreviation. This
means, for example, that the calendar system abbreviation should be used for
all date entries in the following countries that are earlier than the year
given below:
Greece 1924
Bulgaria or Romania 1921
Russia, Turkey, Estonia, Latvia, or Lithuania 1919
China 1913
Japan 1874
England, Scotland, Ireland, and the American colonies 1753
Holland and Switzerland 1702
France, Spain, Portugal and Italy 1583
(Other countries changed at other years)

These standards can be and are fully implemented in the more powerful genealogy
software systems -- such as "Ancestors and Descendants" (A&D). These standards
are also fully documented in the book "Adventures in Genealogy". It is
available for $4.95 plus shipping from Adventures In Ancestry, Inc. It can be
ordered from (800) 237-5333 or 1-310-842-7442.

Best regards,
Dan Hancock

This thread: