Julian to Gregorian calendar

[Guy Etchells]

I am going to use the dates as they were recorded at the time... so 1742, and trust that is correct. I am going to have to keep a good look out for events that happened around 1752 and after and double check them. Where events occurred after 1752 but were recorded using the old method, I will calculate the year that should have been recorded. I will change the year but not the day and month. If my thinking is incorrect I welcome easy to understand explanations.

The reason to use double dating is to prevent confusion in future years.
When someone sees a date if it written using the double dating format it is instantly clear as to what year is being referred to, unless the record is in context and you can see the year is beginning in January or March.
If only a single date is given the viewer does not know if it was the date as originally written or a date which has been converted therefore there is confusion.

It is the same as the month format does 05/09/2015 refer to 05th September 2015 or 09 May 2015? It could be either but 05 Sep 2015 is clear.
Cheers
Guy

[LizzieL]

I am still using Family Tree maker for Windows 95. I don't know if other versions of FTM do the same.
If I enter a (baptism) date of 1st January 1743 (meaning the child's baptism appears in the register on the day following 31st December 1742), it will convert it to display 1st January 1742/43.
So it seems to allow for the fact that the register will still show the year as 1742 up until the end of March, but also indicates that in the modern system of starting a year on 1st January, the event would would have taken place in 1743.

I have found many transcribed records on Ancestry which only give a single year, it is more often than not the earlier of the pair (as would be written in the register). So an infant could appear to be buried before he was baptised!

[PalmTree1]

I use FTM 2014 and have an option for these dates. Don't know if it is in the same place on all versions of FTM but for mine go to Tools then Options then Names/Dates/Places and there is a Double Dates entry where you can choose the cut-off date which normally should be 1752.

HTH
Paul aka Palmtree1

[LizzieL]

In my vintage version I go to "File" Top left tab) then "Preferences" then "Dates and Measures" in the drop downs.

So it sounds much the same thing with slightly different names for the tabs selected. The default is 1751, with option to change if necessary.

[LizzieL]

I've just done a little experiment with Ancestry

I entered a birthdate of 1st Jan 1720/1 and I got a message saying

!There are too many possible values for day. Are you sure?
With a "Yes, use this" link to c lick underneath

I entered the same birthdate but with year as 1720/21 (i'e with the 2 of 21) and I got the message
!There is more than one possible year value. Are you sure?
again a link with "Yes, use this"

So it is recognising a difference in the two forms and it may accept the second version "1720/21"

However if you enter a date after 1751 in this way, the messages are the same as pre-1751 dates, it doesn't seem to recognise a cut off date like FTM does.

There do seem to be a few hurdles to making it accept the dates, particularly if they are added through a later edit and the double year doesn't show up on the time line but if you click view details the double date is still there.

I have managed to make it accept an infant who was born on 1st December 1745 and died on 1st Feb 1745/46 (two months later) without telling me the death date is before birth date.

To see whether the information interchanges between FTM and Ancestry correctly, you would probably have to set up a small test tree and experiment with it. You can have several separate trees on Ancestry.