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Archiver > GERMAN-SURNAMES > 2005-01 > 1105647766


From: ".... valentine53179" <>
Subject: Re: [Ger-Sur] Fw: Calendars in the past
Date: Thu, 13 Jan 2005 14:22:46 -0600
References: <003101c4f9a5$8f6b23e0$1bff1518@had1.or.comcast.net>


most had a pretty good idea when the sabbath was....
might not know the date unless or until they journeyed into town
and then a comment tot he clerk about three sundays ago would be all it would take...
further,
baptisms were a big thing and clerics were aware of days and months and years....

are there mistakes?
likely so, but the error would have been recorded FOREVER as the clerk or minister jotted the date down...

remember too, seasons and date and months were not unknown...
trips to town for essentials would bring the person up to date....
perhaps with a newspaper or just conversation or just a look see at a posted calendar....

folks knew dates because of mortgages, and crop days and like i mentioned, church days....

erros, in my opinion would not be too far off....
remember reading about rendevous?
well those were for a week at a time... because the trappers could be off on a margin of a few days and still be able to participate...so in my mind, a day or two might be all your folks might have errored...

further, when it came to money, people had things down to the penny.... and knew WHEN they were expected to PAY that penny...

now with regard to registering a birth in a civil record... these did not always happen immediately, but were timed with
POSSIBLE (no one would leave the homeplace in a blizzard unless it was lifethreatening not to - and recording a birth was NOT!) trips to town
AND If there was TIME
AND if the clerk was in the office - clerkships were not a full time job....and so a father reaching the counter might tell the clerk that the baby was born three days after EASTER and the clerk would records it... might be that the record was created over a month or two months later but it was recorded... so, dont always look for records in strict chronological order for this very reason....!

remember too that neighbors and travelling people, often would comment to those in town about information they had found out and those pieces of info might be found in a newspaper... a line of "MARY HAD A LITTLE LAMB, and john is a happy man, both are fine!"

this all is my opinion on the matter...


----- Original Message -----
From: Dave Witthans
To:
Sent: Thursday, January 13, 2005 1:24 PM
Subject: [Ger-Sur] Fw: Calendars in the past



Dear "Ger Sur" Listers,

The following is a question from another list. Would you please respond to "Ger Sur" so we can all benefit and I'll pass it along to Carole:

----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, January 13, 2005 9:52 AM
Subject: Calendars in the past


I figured if anyone would know, the gurus on this list would know the answer to my question.

How did people keep track of the calendar on the frontiers of America? How did they know the date on which their baby was born? I have some folks who were always at the leading edge of the frontier so I can see why their ages would bounce around from one census to the next. They probably didn't have the foggiest idea the month let alone the date....or did they?

Carole


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