[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Format for Dates

Dan dbuss at pathcom.com
Tue Oct 3 15:48:13 PDT 2006


Interesting discussions the last few months on numerical dates, and the latest suggestions by Earl Schutz is right on, but there are two things that do not yet seem to be addressed.
First, the month should always be in the middle as the International Standard shows. However using only 2 digits for the year leads to the next point. 
I thought the Y2M scare would have alerted people to the confusion (and even danger) of using only 2 digits. The year should always be given as 4 digits (yyyy), especially in genealogy. 

In this way peple can still use their preference as to the year at beginning or end so long as the month is in the middle.  While most institutions are using the International Standard, there are still some that haven't got the message.  Its most frustrating to get a letter from a company or bank, etc.using six digit dates and you think you've got it right until you see a middle number greater than 12 somewhere in the text. Good grief!!

If we could all agree on 4 digits for the year, and the month in the middle, the world would again revolve smoothly.

Dan Buss



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