CALENDAR CHANGE
The natural units of our calendar are the day (one rotation) of the earth on its axis) and the year (one revolution of the earth around the sun). Whereas the month and week are convenient subdivisions of the solar year. In ancient times, however, the month was equated with a natural division of time, i.e. the lunar cycle (the revolution of the moon around the earth). As 12 lunations comprise only 354 of the solar year's 365 days, peoples using lunar calendars were forced to intercalate a 13th month from time to time to keep a fixed relationship between months and seasons, or else accept that each month goes the round of the seasons within a certain period. Julius Caesar introduced the solar Julian calendar in 45 B.C., adapting it from the Egyptian calendar. It contained an error of intercalation amounting to eight days in a thousand years and was therefore revised in the 16th century by Pope Gregorius XII. The shift that had occurred between months and seasons since Caesar's day was put right by the abolition of ten days and by a revision of the Julian method of calculating leap years. Protestant Europe did not immediately adopt the Gregorian calendar: in England it was not introduced until 1752. In Russia the transition was not accomplished until after the Bolshevik Revolution.

The English (Julian) Calendar was corrected and this Old Style (OS) calendar ceased to be used in England. New Year's Day was formerly March 25th. There was no January and February in 1751.

31 December 1751, the next day was 1 January 1751

24 March 1751, the next day was 25 March 1752

3 September 1752, the next day was 14 September 1752

31 December 1752, the next day was 1 January 1753

1 January 1751 (NS) 1752 -> (1st January thru 24th March)

Harvard Guide to American History gives a formula for correcting dates.

Source of Publication: A Lot of Bunkum, August 1998

 
The Revolutionary Calendar
By Charles R. Haller
Most readers of are vaguely aware of the Gregorian calendar and the Julian calendar and some of the many other types of calendars, but how many know about the Revolutionary calendar?

In the heady days of the French Revolution (1792-1800), French officials determined that they would institute a "correct seasonal calendar" which they named the Revolutionary calendar. This calendar began with year one on October 24, 1793, and ran on for slightly more than twelve years, or until December 31, 1805. It was used also for a period of some two months in 1871.

The Revolutionary calendar still had twelve months, namely Vendémiaire, Brumaire, Frimaire, Nivose, Pluviose, Ventose, Germinal, Floréal, Prairial, Messidor, Thermidor (or Fervidor), and Fructidor. Each month was exactly 30 days long so that it was necessary to add five or six "corrective days" to the end of the year.

Needless to say, genealogists have been confused ever since about converting the Revolutionary calendar to universal dates. The principles of the Revolutionary calendar are in fact so complicated that one finds it absolutely necessary to consult a chart to calculate marriage dates, birth dates, and other vital records. These charts are available at LDS libraries as six page reports listed under "Research Outlines", 1991.

Fortunately, the year after Napoleon I (i.e., Napoleon Bonaparte, 1769-1821; Emperor of the French 1804-1815) took power and was secure in office, the Revolutionary calendar was finally abolished. During the Napoleonic regime, which lasted from 1800 until 1815, a great deal of common sense prevailed. Among other vitally important genealogical matters, the French forced all Dutch, Low German, and German Jewish families to adopt family names, this occurring at varying times, but mainly during the years 1805-1808.

On the other hand, at least in the Alsace until 1871, the French practiced subtle forms of ethnic cleansing whereby German-speaking Protestants were encouraged to emigrate. One form of cleansing involved the recording of German names, both Christian and family into French. Thus, the writer's ancestor living in northernmost Alsace was listed as Jacques Marzolph on various official marriage and birth records even though he consistently signed Jacob Marzolf.

Thus it was that between the years of 1817 and 1870, some 25,893 individuals applied for a passport to leave the Bas-Rhin (northern Alsace) and some 18,906 individuals applied for a passport from the Haut-Rhin (southern Alsace). The total emigration from Alsace, to the U.S. in the period 1815-1870, was at least 44,799 persons. And these records have large gaps. Moreover, many families simply slipped across a common border without applying for a French passport. For the inquisitive reader, the details regarding these migration figures are taken from a 1992 book by Nicole Fouché entitled Émigration Alsacienne aux États-Unis 1815-1870.

The Alsatians, being relatively late to migrate, settled in groups in western New York, southern Ontario, and central Texas, and in other relatively uninhabitated parts of North America. Most Alsatians (and Swiss) departed from the French port of Le Havre. French captains, however, were little inclined to register their passengers at U.S. ports, especially at the port of New York.