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Research in Other Countries => United States of America => Topic started by: audbr on Thursday 09 April 15 20:46 BST (UK)
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Hi can anybody help?
I have some birth/ baptism records from early Boston and the dates are given as follows:
The 28th of the 4th Moneth 1635
The 4th of the 1st Moneth 1638
The 13th Day of the 12th Moneth 1641
In the time period 1630 to 1700 what was the 1st month of the year and what was the 12th month of the year?
Many thanks in anticipation of your help
Regards
Brian
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Try goggling Gregorian calendar conversion or dual dating and you should find some useful articles about when each country changed from New Year in March to January.
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Hi Craclyn,
Many thanks for your reply. My understading is that at that time in England ( and I assume that Massachusetts was the same) the churches new year started on the 25th March. However this does not help as to whether March or April is the first month of the year. I have come across dates such as 20th March 1635/36 before in church records but not the 20th Day of the first month and I am having difficulty indefining ehether the 20th Day of the first month means 20th March or 20th April.
Regards
Brian
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You can figure that out by counting backwards as some of the month names tie in with the Latin numbering for the Julian calendar months. Dec = 10, Nov = 9, Oct = 8, Sept = 7. Just count back from there to see what March and April were.
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These date formats sound like they come from the Quaker calendar. I assume the records you are looking at are Quaker records. In the 1600s the first month was always March. But as I understand it, the year was not applied consistently for dates from March 1 to March 24. So if you see only a single year given for a date in that range, it is a good idea to look at surrounding records to determine which year applies.
Steve
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Hi Steve (sbny357),
Many thanks for your reply, I do not believe I am looking at Quaker Records. I am looking at a document that contains records from 'The Town' and 'The First Church of Boston'. There does not appear to be records that are dual dated.
For completeness I have attached a page of records
Regards
Brian
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Well I guess the Puritans used a similar system, but the principles would be the same. I would guess that any date in the first month relates to March of the stated year, while 11th and 12 month refer to January and February of the year after the stated year.
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Thanks Steve (sbny357),
On the basis that no one else has come up with any different ideas I will go with your 'guess'
Thanks for your help
Regards
Brian
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Dates in this article are in the Julian calendar, which was then in use in England. Because the new year in that calendar fell on March 25, dates between January 1 and March 25 are written with both years to avoid confusion.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massachusetts_Bay_Colony
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Hi aghadowey,
Thanks for your reply. Can I ask you to look again at the image attached to one of my previous messages. Whilst you state that 'dates between January 1 and March 25 are written with both years to avoid confusion' I cannot see any dual year dating hence my confusion.
Also please look under the year heading '1634' and the Sub heading 'First Church' You will see
Mary of William Coddington 2 day 1mo.
So was Mary Coddington born:
2nd March 1634 (i.e 23 days before new years day 1634) or
2nd April 1634 (i.e 8 days after new years day 1634)?
I have also looked at the link to the 'Massachusetts Bay Colony' on Wikipedia. I cannot find anything in that article about dates. Am I missing something?
Regards
Brian
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I was quoting the Wikipedia article- if you scroll down towards the bottom (or use 'find') you should be able to find it.
It is entirely possible that there is a note about the dates shown in those records somewhere in notes at the start.