(The hierarchy does not affect the sort order because qualitative modifiers are not stored in the sort date field.) These terms take on whatever sense the writers create with their supporting details and interpretations. Qualitative modifiers are terms that refer to levels of confidence in the data, and form a relative hierarchy. Qualifiers can be included in the date field with directional modifiers. Qualifiers assign a level of uncertainty in the date because of the way they were derived. RootsMagic offers a set of date "qualifiers" which can be added to dates and date modifiers. "–" – (a long "n" dash) Used for a date period (e.g.Dates entered with "and" as in " and " are converted to between/and dates. ) Between by itself is treated as an unrecognized date. Between/And – A date which is between two dates (e.g.From – Used as a start date for an unknown period (e.g.To – Used as an end date for an unknown period (e.g.By – Used as a date by which something happened (e.g.by ).Directional modifiers and qualitative modifiers and be used in the same date field, but the qualitative modifiers will not be included in the sort date field. RootsMagic offers two types of date "modifiers", directional (including date-range) modifiers and qualitative modifiers, both of which can be added to dates.
Also, the various date modifiers and qualifiers can be used with Quaker dates. Double dates are supported with Quaker dates, so the sort date for 2da 1mo 1588/9 would be. Thus the sort date for the above date would be 12 July 1588, and the sort date for 2da 1mo 1588 would be. Note that Quaker dates before 1752 were based on the Julian Calendar, so the first month refers to March, not January. RootsMagic accepts these dates as "12day 5month 1588" or "12da 5mo 1588", and displays them as "12da 5mo 1588". Quaker date are written referring to days of the weeks and months of the year by their number rather than the names which were based on "pagan" gods. RootsMagic has built-in date support for Quaker dates. 1699/1700.ĭouble dates entered with years before 1583/4 are treated as unrecognized dates, while double dates entered for 25 Mar to 31 Dec after 1583 are also treated as unrecognized dates. RootsMagic displays the year with one digit after the / for most years, except it shows 2 digits for a decade, i.e. 24 were written as /6 to indicate the year was 1675 on the Julian (or Old Style) calendar, but was 1676 on the Gregorian (or New Style) calendar. In the intervening years, dates between Jan. The Gregorian calendar wasn't adopted by the British empire (including its colonies, the US and Canada) until 1752 and other countries as later as 1923. The Gregorian calendar moved the start of the year to January 1. The Julian Calendar used March 25 as the start of the new year and March 24 as the last day of the year. 100 BC)ĭouble dates were used after the Gregorian Calendar was introduced in 1583 to replace the Julian Calendar, because of inaccuracies in the Julian Calendar leap year calculations. BC – Before Christ or Before the Common Era (e.g.If you find a date where you can only read the day and year, you can enter the date as 2 ? 1890,and RootsMagic will sort the date after year-only (1890) date, but before a date. You can enter complete dates or partial dates, into both the data field or the sort date field, like:
It is not necessary to enter a full day, month and year if you don’t know them. Unrecognized dates entered into the sort date field will also be highlighted in yellow, but the unrecognized date will be discarded from the sort date field when your click the Save button. RootsMagic highlights unrecognized dates by changing the background field color to a pale yellow.
However, you must enter your own sort date to tell RootsMagic where to locate the fact in relation to the other facts. Even if the date you enter is not converted to a standard format, such as "the first Wednesday after the big fire in 1808", RootsMagic will still accept the date as you typed it into the Date field.
RootsMagic includes an option in "Settings, General Settings" to let you choose between day-month-year or month-day-year for data entry. Recognized dates will be converted into a standard format for displaying and printing. Any date you type in the Date field will be accepted.