Genealogy Chat

see below

Today is Lady Day (the Feast of the Annunciation) one of the English quarter days and until 1752 the English New Year’s Day so Happy New Year to all of you who are searching relatives back in the 18th century ;-) Don’t forget that if you find baptisms between 1st Jan and 24th Mar pre 1752 they will probably be recorded as happening a year earlier than the modern calendar would have them – so don’t worry if your rellies for example married in April 1740 but had their first child in Jan 1740. This was Jan 1741 in new style calendar so the child was not illegitimate. Many rents and taxes were payable on Lady Day and it was also the date when many hiring fairs took place – when our farm servant ancestors would go along when their contract with an employer had ended, to hire themselves to a new employer for the next year. So if your ancestor seems to disappear from a particular parish records it’s a good idea to find out where the nearest market town holding hiring fairs was and search parishes round about that town.

How to remember the dates of the quarter days: 25th March (the word March has FIVE letters) 24th June (the word June has FOUR letters) 29th September (the word September has NINE letters) 25th December (ummmm well, you just have to remember that one!) Merry