Other Information & Links to other websites

Calendar date change

Up to 1752 the new year always started on March 25th. So years preceding 1752 in original records need care when looking at them. When recording them in your own database etc. it is helpful to record any dates that are January 1st - March 24th as a double date. For example:

February 12th 1674 in the original record would translate to:

February 12th 1674/5. This reminds you to get the timing of a date in the right place. Remember that February 1674 is after November 1674! The double date mode is only necessary for January 1st - March 24th.

England and Wales changed to the Gregorian calendar from the Julian one in 1752 when January 1st was deemed the start of the new year. Also the Julian calendar was by now 11 days out of step with other calendars used elsewhere and with the timing of the earth's orbit round the sun, so it was decided that in September of 1752 we would lose 11 days. This caused uproar at the time because people thought it deprived them of 11 days of their lives!

Tax Records

The new tax year always begins on April 6th, ever wondered why? As you can see above 11 days were lost in 1752 to bring the calendar in line, but the banks and financial institutions were having none of this loss so they continued with the old system putting the end of the tax year back 11 days from March 24th to April 5th, the new tax year starting, as it still strangely does today, on April 6th.

Links to other websites:

The Public Records office in London together with the National Archives have a wealth of information for genealogists and those researching their family history. They can be found using the link below.

The Shemilt family history also had another website dedicated entirely to the Shemilt family and was put together by Michael Shemilt in 2009 and this used to be found using the link below. The website was www.shemiltfamilytree.com and was a great archive of Shemilt related history, with names, families, and video and photograph content. Unfortunately this website was taken down by the relatives of Michael Shemilt after his death in 2016. It is a sad loss to this family history archive. You may still be able to find parts of it on https://archive.org/web/ which can be searched for old websites archived on the internet