Calendar Changes

A pitfall for many family history researchers is the issue of when the church placed New Year, and thus which year it recorded baptisms, marriages and burials.

During the time of the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, the calendar followed the consular year, which began on the day when consuls first entered office—probably 1 May before 222 BC, 15 March from 222 BC and 1 January from 153 BC. The Julian calendar, which began in 45 BC, continued to use 1 January as the first day of the new year. Even though the year used for dates changed, the civil year always displayed its months in the order January to December from the Roman Republican period until the present.

During the Middle Ages, however, under the influence of the Catholic Church, many Western European countries moved the start of the year to one of several important Christian festivals—25 December (Christmas), 25 March (Annunciation), or Easter, while the Byzantine Empire began its year on 1 September and Russia did so on 1 March until 1492 when the new year was moved to 1 September.

Today, 1 January was regarded as New Year's Day and celebrated as such, but from the 12th century until 1751 the legal year in England began on 25 March (Lady Day). So, for example, the Parliamentary record lists the execution of Charles I on 30 January as occurring in 1648 (as the year did not end until 24 March), although later histories adjust the start of the year to 1 January and record the execution as occurring in 1649.

Most Western European countries changed the start of the year to 1 January before they adopted the Gregorian calendar. For example, Scotland changed the start of the Scottish New Year to 1 January in 1600 (making 1599 a rather short year). England, Ireland and the British colonies changed the start of the year to 1 January in 1752 (so 1751 was a short year with only 282 days). Later in 1752 in September the Gregorian calendar was introduced throughout Britain and the British colonies. These two reforms were implemented by the Calendar (New Style) Act 1750.

It is important to keep these dates in mind if you have been fortunate enough to trace you family back past 1752, as the calendar used at the time will skew the year in which events, particularly baptisms, marriages and burials, were recorded if they took place between 1 January and 25 March.

For example – child a is baptised 7 April 1741, with the parish priest helpfully recording that the child was born on 3 April (yes, sometimes you get lucky and the parish records the date of birth as well as the date of baptism).  Child b is baptised 27 February (born 22 February), almost 11 months later.  Because of the calendar, however, Child 2 is recorded as being baptised 27 February 1741 and born 22 February 1741.  This is going to look very odd on a modern timeline, with child b apparently born 22 February and child a born 3 April of the same year!

So as a family historian, how do you deal with these date discrepancies?  Do you change dates to match our current calendar?  Do you leave dates as recorded on official documents but make notes regarding calendar discrepancies?  And do you occasionally (or frequently) forget about the calendar changes until you find two siblings apparently born 2 months apart and suddenly start to doubt your own research?