I have been asked: "Paul, what, please, are "O.S.," "N.S," and "Old Calendar" all about. Thanks. Gloria." Simply stated, there is little reason for a genealogist to memorize the facts having to do with this matter, however the whole topic may be significant if you have birth, death, etc. dates for ancestors before 1752 here or in Britain. Our year is NOT 365 days long, nor is it 365 and 6 hoursbecause of Leap Years. It is, instead, 365 days, 5 hours, 48 min., and 46 sec. - 11 min and 14 sec, give or take a second or two, shorter than 366 days. Despite that little error, the Julian Calendar (after Julius Caeser) served us for 700m years+-, however by 732, during the times and thought of "The Venerable Bede," it became apparent that the calendar was off by several days, and the equinoxes - first day of spring and first of fall - were not on very near March 21 and Sept 21, as they should have been, as revealed by the position of the sun. So, in 732 the calendar was adjusted and all went well to all of us who had no clocks and gave not a hoot anyhow, and to the astrologers who could simply mutter incantations and tell the parish priest what day and time it "really" was. All that said, by the mid-17th century that little 11 minutes and 48 seconds per year had added up to many days, Easter was off, the longest day of the year was in early June, and the sun was not where it should have been on the first day of the year - March 25 - nor on XMAS. So, we fixed it with the "new" or "Gregorian Calendar" after Pope Gregory), and here and in Britain, when you went to bed on the evening of Sept. 2, 1752, you awakened to the morning of Sept. 14, 1752, 12 days having been removed in order that we be back in time with the sun (and who didn't want to do that,for goodness sake!). So what? No one was born here or in Britain from midnight of Sept. 2, 1752 till a moment after midnight of Sept. 13 - those days simply did not exist. Too bad for the little kids who missed a birthday that year :) More importantly to genealogists, from then on we celebrated January as the 1st month of the year and January 1 as New Years Day. So, while we celebrate Washington's birthday as Feb. 22, 1732, his Mother would have insisted - and correctly so - that he was, instead, born on Feb. 22, 1731. The two days were identical, of course, however if we give "Feb. 22, 1731" as the birth, as his mother would have, we would write "Feb. 22, 1731 O.S." (for "old style") and if we wrote "Feb. 22, 1732" as that birthday we would write "Feb. 22, 1732 N.S." (for "new style"). AND, it is not quite this simple, but who cares, or as old Bill said, "hhmmmmmmmmm; Much ado about nothing" huh? Paul :)