Ireland Calendar Change, Phonetic Spelling, and Abbreviations - International Institute

Calendar Changes in 1752
In 1752, changes were made to the calendar used in England and her colonies.

Old Style and New Style
The Old Style Calendar began on Lady Day, 25th March, thus in 1750 and before, the year ran as follows:


 * 25-31 March, April-December, January-24 March Month 1 was March 7ber was September 8ber was October 9ber was November 10ber was December

In 1752 Britain changed to the New Style Calendar with 1st January as New Year's Day, but this change had taken place earlier in other countries such as Scotland in 1600.

1751 was a short year running from 25 March to 31 December only, because 1752 started on 1st January.

The correct way to describe a date in the 'overlap' period of 1 January to 24 March in any year before 1751 is to state the Old Style/New Style e.g. 1712/13 which means: 24 January 1712 in the register is what we would now call 24 January 1713.

Julian and Gregorian Calendars and the Lost 11 days
The Julian Calendar used from Roman Times was based on a 365.25-day year, there being an extra day every 4th year to account for the 0.25 factor.

However, astronomically the year is actually 365.2422 days long. This meant that by 1582 the Julian Calendar was 10 days out of synchronism with the seasons. This was beginning to make life difficult in an agricultural economy. Hence Pope Gregory instituted two reforms: firstly 10 days were omitted (coping with past errors), and secondly, in future the last years of centuries (i.e. 1600, 1700 etc.) would only be Leap Years if their first two digits were divisible by four (hence ensuring accuracy from that time forward.)

The Catholic countries all changed around 1582, Protestant ones were reluctant to follow suit because it was a Catholic innovation. Britain (including Ireland and colonies) eventually changed over in 1752; some countries held out longer, for example Russia until 1917.

As Europe had changed over much earlier, Britain was now 11 days out of sync, thus it was pronounced that September 2 would be followed by September 14. According to popular legend, this caused riots in the streets because the church had taught of a pre-ordained date of death. People shouted, "Give us back our 11 days!"

Genealogical Surprises

 * It was quite possible, and in fact common, for this situation to occur: John SMITH married Jemima TADPOLE on 6 Apr 1721 Jemima, wife of John SMITH was buried on 2 Feb 1721. (Because February came after April in those days, and she likely died in childbirth.)


 * In Rusper, Sussex on 26 Mar 1652 they buried Robert Chatfield who had died on 24 Mar 1651. No, he was not excessively decayed because he only died two days before, that date being in the previous year.


 * However, be very wary of any research that quotes, for example: James WHITE married Phillis BLACK on 27 Feb 1751 or Simon BLOGGS buried 5 Sep 1752 as there were no such dates due to the short year in 1751 and the lost 11 days in 1752!

Phonetic Spellings
The family historian needs to learn to read phonetically. These examples will provide some practice for what you will find before 1900.

Examples of given names 

Chart: Learn to Read Phonetically

Chart: Abbreviations Used in Registers

Chart: Terms used for illegitimacy

Monumental Inscriptions (MIs)
The Irish Family and Local History Societies have done a grand job of recording tombstones in churchyards, cemeteries and burial grounds. They may also be referred to as memorial transcriptions, graveyard or cemetery records. Obviously only the more affluent could afford tombstones and this would seem to rule out many emigrants’ ancestors. Many of the websites listed at the end of the course material give you access to these databases, for example:


 * Irish Genealogy has over 400,000 MIs from 10 counties.
 * Brian Cantwell’s Memorials of the Dead, the Collected Works (containing memorials for over 67,000 people). FindMyPast (£)

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Information in this Wiki page is excerpted from the online course Research: Irish Ancestor offered by The National Institute for Genealogical Studies. To learn more about this course or other courses available from the Institute, see our website. We can be contacted at [mailto:wiki@genealogicalstudies.com wiki@genealogicalstudies.com]

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