TMG-L Archives

From: bob gillis <>
Subject: Re: [TMG] Recording dates - was Quaker Dates
Date: Sat, 01 Feb 2003 09:52:23 -0500
References: <20030130150748.95849.qmail@web41506.mail.yahoo.com> <011001c2c98f$c2ae62f0$687ba8c0@billjohn>

I agree with Bill and James. Unless your intended readers are Quakers
and/or familiar with Quaker dating, I would not use them as the primary
date, only in a memo or CD.

The recording of dates as 1: 2 mo: 2003 was not just a Quaker way.
Before 1752, many other records have the date entered that way and in
some transcriptions the date has been converted, sometimes incorrectly.

bob gillis

Bill Johnson wrote:
>
> Some time ago (months, years?), someone objected to the TMG feature of
> normalizing dates in the date field, that is putting them into a standard
> form. More recently there have been discussions about putting into the date
> field the date as it is actually recorded in the source.
>
> I always want the date in the Date field as dd Mmm yyyy. Why? Because then
> anyone reading the date in a chart or other report knows when it occurred. I
> have had correspondence with people who had the month and day reversed in
> their data because the source they had used the European convention of the
> day first, and they interpreted it according to the American convention of
> month first. My most common date conversion is from a church record giving
> the Sunday of the church year (e.g. 15th Sunday after Trinity). I would
> _never_ put the date that way into the Date field, because most people
> wouldn't have the foggiest idea of when the event happened. I do always put
> a statement in the Memo, such as : "Date given as the 15th Sunday after
> Trinity." I use the Memo rather than the CD because it shows on the Detail
> view. The important thing in a report or chart is to present the information
> as clearly and precisely as possible, and anything that causes confusion or
> misunderstanding should be avoided.
>
> To push putting the date in the Date field exactly as given in the source
> might involve writing "Heliga tre konungars dag", which is Epiphany, which
> is 6 January. It would seem seem the height of folly to burden the Date
> field with that. A note, either in the Memo or CD would seem to appropriate.
> Another example would be the common use of 'do' meaning "ditto" to repeat
> either the day or the month.
>
> Bill J.
>
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• Re: [TMG] Recording dates - was Quaker Dates by bob gillis <>