Hello List, Recently, a friend of mine commented that she couldn't remember Christmas being on a Sunday until this last one. Her comment got me started on a fun research project for her. Several years ago I found a special calendar in one of our Portland phonebooks and tore it out to use in my genealogy research. It was called "Reference Calendar, 1796-2025". There were a total of 14 calendars on the page, January-December. Numbers 1-7 were for years with February only having 28 days. Numbers 8-14 were for years that February had 29 days (leap years). A leap year adds another day into the mix for the start of the next year's calendar. (If there isn't a leap year in the previous year's calendar, and if January 1st started on Tuesday the previous year, January 1st would start on Wednesday the next year.) At the top of the page, there was an index showing each year, from 1796-2025, and the number of the calendar to use for each year. I found the following years, within my friend's lifetime, where December 25th fell on a Sunday: 1938, 1949, 1955, 1960 a Leap Year, 1966, 1977, 1983, 1988 a Leap Year, 1994, 2005, 2011. Calendar index numbers 7 and 13 are the only ones that have December 25th on a Sunday. The next two years that will have December 25th on a Sunday will be 2016 and 2022. Using the "Reference Calendar" here is an example of how "Leap Year" effects the day of the week on which January 1st falls: Year, calendar number, Day of the week for January 1st, Leap Year (Y/N) 1958....4....Wednesday....N 1959....5....Thursday....N 1960....13....Friday....Y 1961....1....Sunday....N 1962....2....Monday....N 1963....3....Tuesday....N 1964....11....Wednesday....Y 1965....6....Friday....N 1966....7....Saturday....N 1967....1....Sunday....N 1968....9....Monday....Y 1969....4....Wednesday....N 1970....5....Thursday....N I found a not so great copy of the Reference Calendar at the following website, but it gives you an idea of what I use: http://www.rawlingsrollingshistory.com/2000/Dec2000p60.htm (Someone posting to a RootsWeb list said they found this calendar in a US West Telephone Directory for 1992.) Another fun thing to do is use the Mother Goose poem, "Monday's Child", to see how the poem describes the character of a child, depending on what day of the week they were born. The poem may or may not be true about you or a person you know, but it is fun to compare the person with what the poem says. I found two slightly different versions on the internet. The difference is in the wording of the "Sabbath day" child. Sunday was traditionally referred to as the 'Sabbath day' so there is no specific reference to Sundays child. Traditional poem - Mondays child http://www.rhymes.org.uk/mondays_child.htm Mondays child poem, by Mother Goose (Version #1) Mondays child is fair of face, Tuesdays child is full of grace, Wednesdays child is full of woe, Thursdays child has far to go, Fridays child is loving and giving, Saturdays child works hard for his living, And the child that is born on the Sabbath day Is bonny and blithe, and good and gay. http://www.bethanyroberts.com/MondaysChildIsFairofFace.htm Mondays child poem, by Mother Goose (Version #2) Monday's child is fair of face, Tuesday's child is full of grace, Wednesday's child is full of woe, Thursday's child has far to go. Friday's child is loving and giving, Saturday's child works hard for a living, But the child born on the Sabbath Day, Is fair and wise and good and gay. - - - - - - - - - - - I found my friend was born on a Tuesday, and she is full of Grace. Her husband was born on a Wednesday, but he was definitely not full of Woe. She gave me the dates of birth for herself, her husband, father, mother and her 3 children. I looked up the day of the week on which each was born, and sent that information to her along with the poem. I hope this is adds something interesting and fun to your family research, as it has to mine. Sincerely, Jan Fenter

Jan, Thank you for the interesting posting! I looked and just found out that my RootsMagic genealogy program has a dating feature that goes back at at least as far as 38BC. Unfortunately it doesn't allow for the days being taken from February to please the egos of Julius and Augustus Caesar. Carole > From: jfent@hevanet.com > To: ORFORUM@rootsweb.com > Date: Sat, 7 Jan 2012 11:23:27 -0800 > Subject: [GFO] Reference Calendar 1796-2025, and poem "Monday's Child" > > Hello List, > Recently, a friend of mine commented that she couldn't remember Christmas being on a Sunday until this last one. Her comment got me started on a fun research project for her. > > Several years ago I found a special calendar in one of our Portland phonebooks and tore it out to use in my genealogy research. It was called "Reference Calendar, 1796-2025". There were a total of 14 calendars on the page, January-December. Numbers 1-7 were for years with February only having 28 days. Numbers 8-14 were for years that February had 29 days (leap years). A leap year adds another day into the mix for the start of the next year's calendar. (If there isn't a leap year in the previous year's calendar, and if January 1st started on Tuesday the previous year, January 1st would start on Wednesday the next year.) At the top of the page, there was an index showing each year, from 1796-2025, and the number of the calendar to use for each year. > > I found the following years, within my friend's lifetime, where December 25th fell on a Sunday: > 1938, 1949, 1955, 1960 a Leap Year, 1966, 1977, 1983, 1988 a Leap Year, 1994, 2005, 2011. > > Calendar index numbers 7 and 13 are the only ones that have December 25th on a Sunday. The next two years that will have December 25th on a Sunday will be 2016 and 2022.