A few words about calendars and dates may be helpful. The Julian calendar, used for centuries, had by the 16th century gotten seriously out of synchronization with the natural, seasonal one, and Easter was coming later and later into the spring. Pope Gregory XIII therefore initiated a reform: a new calendar that took effect in 1582 in most Roman Catholic areas and at various later times in others.1 This calendar, still in use today, has through an elaborate formula for adding leap days in leap years almost eliminated the disparity with the natural calendar – and the resulting "creep" of Easter.
England and its possessions delayed adoption of the Gregorian calendar until 1752. In these areas it was not uncommon for dates in January, February, and much of March to be expressed using the year both in the Julian system and that in the new Gregorian system. For example, the birthday of George Washington, born on February 11, 1731, under the Julian calendar, was sometimes written "February 11, 1731/2." In 1752, the English brought their calendar into harmony with the Gregorian calendar by dropping eleven days between September 2 and September 14 of that year, eliminating the accumulated "drag" that the Julian calendar had caused. In addition, the English began to recognize January 1, not March 25, as the first day of the new year. With these changes, Washington's birthday was instantly transformed into February 22, 1732.
What are the implications for a family history such as this one? Fortunately, most European areas made the change fairly early, before we have specific dates for most events in our families' histories. In other cases, the sources are not always clear about which calendar is being cited for dates subject to possible conversion. Most of the sources appear to have used the Gregorian calendar date, and so I have assumed that dates not otherwise identified are also in fact Gregorian ones. Where double-dating was employed, I have sometimes used the date of the later year and sometimes used the "split" date, depending on how the source cited it. It is possible, however, that a few of these dates are one year off – either because someone else has erred in recording the "actual" date or because I have guessed wrong about which calendar system was being used.
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rev. 8/26/10
Notes
1The relevant conversion dates were as follows: Belgium, 1582-83; France, 1582; Alsace, 1648; Roman Catholic regions of Germany, 1583; Protestant regions of Germany, up to 1700; Roman Catholic regions of the Netherlands (mainly Holland and Brabant), 1582; Protestant regions of the Netherlands, 1701; Norway, 1701; Roman Catholic regions of Switzerland, 1584; and Protestant regions of Switzerland, 1700. Return to text
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