Dates before 1752 in Forest of Dean Parish Transcripts (General)

by tjbet , Wednesday, December 02, 2009, 11:01 (5545 days ago)

Before 1752 the Julian calendar was used for the 'Official year'.
On January 1 1752 the Gregorian calendar was adopted. By this date there was a 10 day discrepancy between the two calendars. To correct this anomoly Sep 4 1751 was followed by Sep 14 1751.

In FoD parish register transcripts project, for dates before 1752, between January 1 and March 24, the year is altered to try to reflect the historic year, with a comment in the Notes column, for example "old style date 1661/2".

I believe this to be a mistake. As family historians we strive to be as accurate as possible with our research and recording, so we should use and record the date appertaining at the time of the entry. By altering the year, even with the 'note' to that effect an error has been introduced which is unnecessary and misleading as no account is taken of the discrepancy between the two calendars.

Trevor