From: "Roy Stockdill" <roy.stockdill@btinternet.com> > Prior to 1752, the year began on March 25 and ended on March 24. > This can cause confusion to newcomers when dealing with events and > dates between Jan 1 and March 24 before 1752 as to which year to > place them in.< Giving this detailed account of the calendar changes brought to my mind a rather amusing incident that occurred at a lecture of mine some years ago! I was describing the effect the calendar changes had on dates between Jan 1 and March 24 before 1752 and how they should be written when suddenly a lady in the audience let out a loud gasp of shock and uttered "Oh my god!" or words to that effect. Thinking she had been taken ill, I stopped speaking and enquired if she was alright. She apologised for her interruption but went on to explain that my description of the calendar changes had produced a sudden solution to a problem which had been puzzling her for some time, i.e. how could an ancestor have been married AFTER his death? !!! I cannot recall the precise dates but it transpired she had had an ancestor who was married in, let us say, the August of 1735 and died in the February of 1735. Of course, the answer was that he had actually died in the following February - i.e. 1736 in modern terms. Afterwards, she couldn't thank me enough for clearing up this mystery which had been baffling her! Thus, you can see how important it is to understand the calendar changes. If possible, you should always try to establish whether a date before 1752 is Old Style or New Style because, as the OP pointed out, it can make a difference of a whole year unless you know what you are doing. When examining the original registers, then there should be no problem. However, it is with transcriptions that problems can arise when you don't know whether the transcriber has taken it upon himself /herself to "correct" the date to the modern one. This is a permanent problem with the IGI. -- Roy Stockdill Professional genealogical researcher, writer & lecturer Newbies' Guide to Genealogy & Family History: www.genuki.org.uk/gs/Newbie.html "There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about." OSCAR WILDE