As genealogists, we are concerned with calendars, both civil and church. Significant events occurred on January 1st. In 1892, Ellis Island opened. In the 1890s, 75 percent of all immigrants entered the United States through that immigrant station. The Emancipation Proclamation was signed in 1962. For the football fans in the family, the first collegiate Rose Bowl game was played in 1902.

Today is the first day of January in the year 2004. In the Hebrew calendar it is 7 Teveth 5764. In the Coptic calendar, it is 22 Kiyahk 1720. It is a different day in the Chinese calendar, Mayan calendar, and so on.

We run into church calendars when we get back a couple of centuries in our research. We may find a record that dates a birth as the first Tuesday after Michaelmas in a certain year.

Church calendars have fixed and movable events. Easter is an example of a moveable feast. The moveable dates, like Ascension, Pentecost, Whitsunday, and Epiphany, are calculated by formulas involving the moon and the sun. They do not repeat in a nice 28-year cycle like Leap Year.

A website that has many links about calendars is “Today’s Date & Time” . Besides historical calendars, and ethnic calendars, one can find religious calendars for all faiths.

© 2004-2006

Connie Lenzen, CG

CG, Certified Genealogist is a service mark of the Board for Certification of Genealogists, used under license by board certified genealogists after periodic evaluation, and the board name is registered in the US Patent & Trademark Office.