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Archiver > ROOTS > 2001-06 > 149372


From: Steven Dhuey <>
Subject: [ROOTS-L] Julian/Gregorian calendars
Date: Tue, 26 Jun 2001 22:33:45 -0500
References: <200106262311.f5QNBIx03913@lists5.rootsweb.com>
In-Reply-To: <200106262311.f5QNBIx03913@lists5.rootsweb.com>


In September 1752, Britain and the British empire switched from the
Julian calendar (instituted by Julius Caesar in the 1st century
B.C.), to the Gregorian calendar (instituted by Pope Gregory in
1582), which among other innovations began the year on January 1.

In Britain, under the Julian calendar, the year had first begun on
December 25 and then, from the 14th century onward, on March 25. So,
from 1582 to 1752, events that occurred in Britain or its colonies
(such as America) Jan. 1 through March 24 of a year (such as 1738),
would have occurred in the following year (e.g., 1739) in parts of
the world using the Gregorian calendar (mostly Catholic countries).

That is why your genealogy software is giving you double years for
dates that occurred in that time period, although I think the example
you give below is not one of the dates it gave you.

Steve


>I have noticed that many dates in my database of the late 17th and early
>18th century people have uncertain years. There are many dates like this:
>"April 17, 1701-02"... What attributes for these kinds of problems?
>Did someone not remember the year? Were the records illegible?

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