[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Julian calendar

[Gary Warner]

To all,

It has been my experience in working with the Przasnysz Lutheran parish 
records, that the very beginning records there are solely single date 
entries (the records begin in 1835).   I was not sure at first which 
calendar system was being used, but I think that I am correct that they 
were using the Julian calendar.   The parish records switched to double 
date entries at the beginning of 1838.   Is there any reason to suspect 
that given the time frame, that the earlier dates are not Julian calendar?

By the way, the switch number of days between the two calendars is not 
so simple as a given number of days that changed at the same time each 
century.  The shift is apparently close to 3 days change every four 
centuries.  Here is the time shift (all dates in Gregorian calendar)

15 October 1582 to 10 March 1700 is 10 days
11 March 1700 to 11 March 1800 is 11 days
12 March 1800 to 12 March 1900 is 12 days
13 March 1900 to 13 March 2100 is 13 days
14 March 2100 to 14 March 2200 is 14 days

Per Wikipedia, a bit of history

"The last country of Eastern Orthodox Europe to adopt the Gregorian 
calendar was Greece on Thursday, 1 March 1923, which followed Wednesday, 
15 February 1923 (a change that also dropped 13 days)."

Apparently some countries delayed adoption of the Gregorian calendar 
because it was a Catholic Church invention.

Gary

On 5/8/2012 5:46 AM, Sigrid Pohl Perry wrote:
> Thanks, Bronwyn.
>
> That's a very interesting site and gives complete information. I think
> the most important point for us to remember in genealogy research is
> that Russia had control of a large portion of Poland in the 19th century
> and they required vital statistics dates to be in the Julian calendar in
> 1868 (though the Poles and Germans had been using the Gregorian calendar
> dates long before this). We see many records from Poland written in
> Russian that provide both dates. However, sometimes the person writing
> the date only uses the Julian date, especially in Volhynia. To be
> consistent with our Gregorian calendar customs, we should count forward
> 12 days (13 days after 1900) for a date if only one is given, and put a
> note in the record about the Julian date.
>
> It is very possible that individuals' vital records will switch back and
> forth between these dates, depending on what they were told about the
> date and if documents carried by them were written by Russian
> authorities before 1918. Please note also that in any Napoleonic
> paragraph record, the prominent date which is given at the beginning is
> the date the record is made, i.e. baptism and marriage ceremonies or the
> recording of a death. The actual birth or death are mentioned in the
> body of the paragraph and it may provide only words like "yesterday",
> "day before yesterday", etc. Someone may take the date at the beginning
> as the date of the event when providing information for another
> document. We should remember all these factors when reconciling
> discrepancies in dates.
>
> Sigrid
>
> On 5/8/2012 4:03 AM, Bronwyn Klimach wrote:
>> Carol,
>> This will give you the answer, and much more:
>> http://www.hermetic.ch/cal_stud/cal_art.html
>> Sigrid may have some other interesting points to mention :)
>> Bronwyn.
>>
>> On Tue, May 8, 2012 at 7:58 AM, Carol Duff<carolduff at me.com>   wrote:
>>
>>
>>> Sigrid, Does Russia still use the Julian calendar? If not, when did it
>>> change?
>>>
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