Originally, people would set these dates to tie in with easily observed natural
occurrences like the changing seasons or varying weather but the fact that
these happenings were not reliable meant that an alternative had to be found.
In 45BC, Julius Caesar established the Julian calendar which was used in
Britain
and the Colonies until 1751. His formula consisted of creating eleven months of
30 or 31 days and 28 in February (except on a Leap Year when this rose to 29).
The calculations differed from the solar calendar by only 11.5 minutes per year
but over the centuries, these minutes added up and by the 1500’s, the Julian
calendar was ten days behind its astronomical equivalent.
To correct this problem, the Gregorian calendar was created by Pope
Gregory XIII in 1582. Although Britain did not take on this new
schedule, other countries did. One of the main differences between the two
calendars is that the Julian has a Leap Year every four years while the
Gregorian does not have a Leap Year if the number is not dividable by 400 or
ends in 00. Therefore, 2000 was a Leap Year but 1900 was not.
In 1751, when Britain eventually decided to adopted the Gregorian
system, eleven days had to be lost in that first year to set it in line. These
were taken from the month of September when the British Calendar Act declared
that Wednesday 2nd would be followed by Thursday 14th.
In
the old Julian calendar, the first day of the year ran from the 25th
March - or Lady Day as it was known - so to complete the calendar changeover, 1751
ran from the 25th March to the 31st December allowing the
following year to begin on the 1st January.
Research Top Tip
If you’re able to track
you ancestry back to this period, be aware that events in this year were often
dated as 1750/51 when the calendar conversion took place.
Don’t Forget!
There may be times when you come across the Latin use
of Roman numerals where a number is represented by one or more letters. Below
is a quick reminder of this numerical code.
I (i or j) = 1
V = 5
X = 10
L = 50
C = 100
D = 500
M = 1000
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