Dates in England in early 1800s
My g-g-g-grandfather's christening was 10 January 1808 as documented by this record that everyone who works on him in Family Tree agrees is really for him:
His headstone gives his birth date as being 12 December 1808. I have always assumed that is just an error and that it must have been 12 December 1807. Occasionally I will see in my e-mail of changes that someone has changed his birth date to 12 December 1808 in Family Tree. That is what the old family group sheets I have say and that is what the majority of his trees on Ancestry say. Is there some quirk of the English calendar that I am not aware of that would make his December birth and January christening both be in 1808, such as the year not changing to 1809 until March? Or the ecclesiastical calendar changing to 1808 on the first Sunday of Advent? The title of Baptism 1808 with the months then listed in the left column do make it look like January 1 was considered the start of the new year. What is the best way to record his birth and christening information so that it doesn't look like he was born eleven months after he was christened if both sources are correct and the year was 1808 for both events?
Best Answer
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According to multiple websites, England switched the start of the year from March 25th to January 1st in 1752. In other words, by the time of this baptism, the new year had started in January for half a century already. It seems pretty clear to me that the headstone is in error.
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