The Calendar Makes a Difference

A thing to consider when entering dates for the vital records of your ancestors is which calendar is in use at the time. France started using the Gregorian calendar in 1582, so the same day will be recorded as different days in Canada and the United States, until the US switched from Julian to Gregorian in 1752. 

In Britain and it's colonies before 1752 the Julian calendar was used, and the legal new year began on March 25th.  That is why in old English records the heading date is before March 25th.

In the early records of the 1500s perhaps you will see the word year and the month names written in Latin, and the days are written in Roman Numerals.  When the numeral is just 1 or ends in a 1, they may use a j. So one will be j and eighteen will be xviij.  In the above record the first baptism for the year 1566 was in May (last of previous year being in January) and the last baptism for 1566 was xxij Martius, or the 22nd of March. The following year has it's first baptism in April, since the New Year began March 25th.

The Gregorian calendar was adopted in the British Empire (including the New England) in Sept 1752, and during transition often dual dates could have been used.

Roman Calendar

In a post I did for New Year's Day in 2014, I wrote about the Julian Calendar and referred to a publication with the Roman Calendar, giving the months and days in Latin. It doesn't matter that the book is in French, you will understand from the Latin what the words for the months and days are.

Stephen P Morse of San Francisco has provided an easy online program which converts Julian to Gregorian and v.v.

Enter the date (before September 1752) in the Julian Calendar, make sure the New Year is set at March 25 for Britain. Next under Country, choose your ancestors country from the drop down menu. It will give you the last day the Julian Calendar was used and the official first day the Gregorian Calendar was used. Like I said, in some cases there can be overlap, or show dual dates.  Stephen has other calendar converters (eg Jewish, Mayan, etc), foreign letters and characters, plus other genealogy information on his website... click "My Other Webpages" to check it out. 

Relevant Links

Julian Calendar with Latin months

Calendar Converter, by Steven Morse

Roman Numerals

British Empire and Overseas Territories

Dissertation on the Anglo Saxon Calendar, handwritten

Dissertation on the Anglo Saxon Calendar, published 1895

The Byrhtferth's Manuscript (MS 17) † Saint John’s College †Oxford, published yr 1111

New Year's Day

The names of the months of the year are Latin in origin, which is logical since the calendar we use started in Rome. Following is my condensed version of the evolution of our calendars to explain some early BMD records and also the origin of New Year's Day.

Roman Calendar

 

The early Roman Calendar was based on the cycles of the moon. The year started with March 1st and had only 10 months. The last six months were named for Latin words for numbers - quinque (5), sex (6), septem (7), octo (8), novem (9) and decem (10).  That is why you will find that many old BMD records, including in Quebec, have dates with the month written as 7br, 8br, 9br and 10br. January and February were added later as 11th and 12th months, until about 450 BC when they became the first and second months, making January 1st the first day of the new year. 

The Julian Calendar was introduced by Julius Caesar in 46 BC and later the months Quintilis (5th) and Sextilis (6th) were renamed Iulius (the month of Julius Caesar's birth - there was no letter J at that time) and Augustus (founder and first emperor of the Roman Empire).

March 25th was Feast of the Annunciation, the day the angel told Mary she would be the mother of Jesus, and is still celebrated as such in some religions. In AD 525 the monk Dionysius Exiguus introduced the calendar system of Anno Domini (AD - the year of our Lord), with the year 1 AD (and counting forward) following the year 1 BC (and counting backwards). Dionysius declared the day Jesus was "conceived", March 25th, to be New Year's Day.

When the Gregorian Calendar (introduced by Pope Gregory in 1502) was adopted by the British Empire in September 1752 it was decreed that January 1st was to be New Year's Day. So.....

Happy New Year!

Timeline of Calendars 0001-1972

Serendipity Sunday - Calendars and Webinars

Every year at Christmas I get a Calendar for the next year printed with photos of my grandchildren.  All their birthdays are marked on it as well as holidays and important events. I love it!

You may have a themed paper calendar with squares for writing in, and/or a virtual one. While you are adding in all the important dates to your new calendar for 2015, don't forget the free genealogy Webinars.

Many genealogy societies have now published their schedule of free webinars for 2015. There may be some you don't want to miss, for example....

Using Google Earth for Genealogy

Techniques for Differentiating Two People with the Same Name

Researching your Female Lines        

                              
My list of favourite societies that give free webinars is here.

I use Google products for virtually everything (and everything virtual) and I have my Calendar synced on my laptop with my ipad and my phone. I add to it all the Webinars I want to see in the coming year as events and set the alert function to remind me, perhaps the day before, then reset it for 1 hour before the event so I can login. The alert pops up on my IPad or phone and stays until I see it.

Here are some tips for scheduling with the 3 major virtual calendars, Google, Microsoft and iCal.

Thank You Calendar

I have had fun (and learned a lot) while writing my articles this past year. 

As a thank you for tuning in, here is my gift to you.

When I was just learning website code I made an Advent Calendar for my family.  Now I have grandchildren who will enjoy it (as well as the old folks) so I have updated and tweeked it a little.  I thought some of you may enjoy it - so share it and pass it along!

I will upload it early next week and post it in the right hand column of this page. Once it is there and you open it, you can bookmark the URL for easy access.

Thank you, and Joyous Holidays!


Note:  Only available Dec 1-31, 2014

Almanacs

 You can add life to the story of your ancestors by doing some research on their surroundings. We can take a look at things like what was available at the place and time your ancestor lived. Who were the rulers? What was the ship/train schedule? You will recall in the last article about disasters, I talked about it getting dark about 5 pm at the time of the Earthquake of 1663.  There are sites and books that tell at what time the sun rose and set on any given day.

Almanacs are a good resource for this and other information for the year you want. Some of them include names of government people, heads of agencies, lawyers and judges, clergy, bankers, Royals, etc. Check out some of the ads in these books too.

I came across this written in 1882 on how to raise your children to be conscientious people.  Do you think it is or should be the same today?                                             

You can also ask yourself these questions: How far was it to the nearest city and how long did it take to get there? How did people travel? What were the holidays, rites, customs?                               

Relevant Links

Canadian Almanac and Repository of Useful Knowledge 1859

American Almanacs – various years from 1733

British Almanac 1828

The Quebec Almanack for the year 1795

The Quebec Almanack and British American royal kalendar for the year 1823

The general almanac of Scotland, and British register for 1809

The Newfoundland Almanacs

Years of Inventions

Perpetual Calendar