Some countries have dates of (Day/Month/Year)

Jodileblanc77

I'm indexing baptisms for a foreign country. The dates could be in the format (Day/Month/Year) instead of (Month/Day/Year)

How do we distinguish the correct format?

sc woz

@Jodileblanc77

The 

D-M-Y (day, month, year)

 format is the most widely used around the world, whether we count the number of countries that use it or number of inhabitants of these countries. It is used throughout South and Central America (except Belize), Mexico, Africa, Oceania, much of Asia and most of Europe

I found an article on Wiki that shows the countries around the world and what formatting they use.

Gordon Collett

First thing to do is read the instructions for the batch and follow them. If that does not clarify the situation, then assume that like most record keeping systems they will have internal consistency. If you scan the entire set and see a list of dates:

• 25/2/1860
• 14/3/1860
• 30/4/1860
• 1/5/1860
• 27/6/1860

You can be confident all the dates in the batch will be D-M-Y no matter where in the world you are.

If instead you see:

• 2/25/1860
• 3/14/1860
• 4/30/1860
• 5/1/1860
• 6/27/1860

Then you can also be confident that all the entries are M-D-Y, again no matter where you are in the world. It would be highly unlikely for one person to alternate between the two styles at random.