Help with the birth date

BetteB

This civil birth registration was filed in Hürth (near Cologne) on the 1st day of Vendemiaire in the 9th year of the French Republic (23 September 1800). I can read almost everything on this birth registration, except the birth date. Since the registration is on the 1st day of the 9th year, the "8" may be for the 8th year of the French Republic. I see "funften" and "tag" but can't make out the month?

Thanks for any help you can give me!

Robert Seal_1

1 Vendemiaire was the first day of year IX.

The French Republican calendar had 5 or 6 extra days at the end of its 12 months. These were called complementary days (or "Sansculottides") and did not belong to a specific month.

Thus, there were five complemetary days which came before 1 Vendemiaire in year IX.

See the following article from Wikipedia about "Sansculottides": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sansculottides

I read the birth date as: gebohren den funften ________? tag acht J[ahr].

This is very likely the fifth (and last) day of year VIII, which would convert to: 22 September 1800.

I can't read the word after "funften" and before "tag"; however "complementary day" translates to German as "Ergänzungstag" so perhaps that undecipherable word is some form of "Ergänzungs".

BetteB

I've been using the French Republican Calendar page from the FS Wiki but I appreciate the additional resource on Sansculottides. I didn't realize exactly how those extra days worked, What a complicated calendar system. I'm glad I'm almost past those entries.

Thank you so much for your help!

Robert Seal_1

You're welcome, Bette. Yes, it was a very complicated calendar system which is why it didn't last very long. Those 5 or 6 complementary days at the end of the year really do complicate matters.