I have spent many hours searching the many lines of my family tree, and one of the most frustrating is using birth dates to locate marriage dates and figure out the parents of the previous generation. When digging back into the years before my ancestors came to America, dates were really hard to rely on for accuracy. I found that this history was part of my problem. I decided I would....  

Blame it on the Romans

             Most genealogists know that in 1751 our colonial ancestors lost over two months of their calendar year, but I wonder how many are aware of the long, drawn-out process that led to that event.

            You can blame it on the Romans. In 45 B.C. Julius Caesar established a 12 month calendar based on the solar year as determined by the number of days it took the earth to orbit the sun—365.25 days. That quarter day was a bit awkward so scholars of that time recommended that three years out of every four have 365 days and the fourth year have 366 days. That sounds familiar, but wait.

            After centuries, in which many civilizations all over the world followed the Julian calendar, so named for the emperor, new and more accurate measurements of the earth’s orbit lead scholars to figure out that the previous calculations were a bit high. What to do?

            Simple. In 1582 Pope Gregory XIII decided it was time to make adjustments. He simply plucked 10 days out of October that year. October 4^th was followed by October 15^th. That’s not all. He made January 1^st the beginning of the year instead of March 25^th as it had been previously. And he decreed that the end of each century that was divisible by 400 would be a leap year. However, not everyone liked the new calendar.

The Roman Catholic countries soon adopted the new Gregorian calendar, which naturally was named after the pope, but Protestant England and her colonies, did not. It wasn’t until an Act of the English Parliament in 1751 that Great Britain was ready to make the change. You remember that the Pope cut 10 days out of October.  Because 170 years had passed since that time, the British had accumulated an additional twenty-four hours.

             They solved the problem in 1752 by eliminating 11 days from September. September 2^nd was followed by September 14^th. Additionally, in order to put the English citizen in sync with the earth’s position, there had to be another change. The year 1751 began under the Julian calendar on March 25^th and ended on December 31^st so that 1752 could begin on January 1^st under the Gregorian calendar like most other countries.

Many Englishmen were furious about the change and there even were a few riots in the American colonies. Here’s the rub. Prior to 1752, under the Julian calendar January, February and March, up until the 24^th, were at the end of the year. For example, in the year 1750, March 24^th was New Year’s Eve. Suddenly in 1751, December 31^st was New Year’s Eve. That made 1751 only 9 months long. January was pushed into the following year -- 1752. Consider this. If an important date, such as a birthday, fell on March 15, 1751 and that date was moved to 1752 … would you wonder how old that made you?

In addition, not all countries got on the bandwagon. For example, Sweden didn’t make the change until 1753. Japan held out until 1872. Greece and Turkey lagged even further behind.

            What does this all mean to the genealogist? If you’ve searched for your colonial ancestor, you are probably familiar with the slash mark (/) used in many birth dates during the early 1700s. You will often find that if your ancestor was born in January or February their birth date was moved 10 days ahead in the Gregorian calendar. But did you know that if a colonist was born between February 29^th and September 1, 1752 they moved their birthday ahead 11 days?

Also, think of all those tombstone dates. If you’ve searched for some old tombstones made prior to 1752 to verify a death date, consider that the date may have been under the Julian calendar and not the Gregorian calendar. Confused? If you think you’re confused, think what it must have been like for your ancestors. For us, 255 years later, it’s just an interesting puzzle, but for them it must have caused all kinds of consternation.