Happy New Year

Posted by Darlene Vaillancourt Jan 1, 2008

When the date of the new year changed from March 25th to the first of January, it took some time for people to change their views. So many old vital records between the 1500s and 1700s have years listed as 1720/21 if the date fell between the 2 different New Years. We call this "double dating" and it's common in British documents from this period.

So don't think you're seeing errors or uncertain dates. It's a legitimate way of recording the year for that time period. Keep reading if you want to know more about how to handle double dates.