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Lady Day is the British name for Annunciation Day--the church festival commemorating Angel Gabriel's announcement to Mary that she was to give birth to Jesus (Luke 1:26-38). Lady Day is March 25th and, until 1752, was the first day of the year in Great Britain and her colonies.

In 1572, Pope Gregory XIII reformed the previously accepted Julian calendar, correcting errors which made the vernal equinox fall earlier and earlier in the calendar year. The Catholic countries adopted the new Gregorian calendar immediately. Being not fond of Rome and Catholicism, almost another 200 years passed before England fell in line. By this time the difference between the Julian and Gregorian calendars was 11 days. In 1752, this discrepancy was resolved by making 14 September follow 2 September and the first day of the year was changed to January 1st. Many clergymen noted the date change in their registers, not always in language that is very clear to us today. (Sometimes their references to the change are downright ill-tempered.)

Lady Day causes a lot of confusion in Americans looking in parish registers. Besides the obvious confusion of having three months of what seems to be next year in last year, the question is raised of How to refer to dates from January 1 to March 24?

If a vicar was a radical, free-thinking sort, you might see entries dated, for example, 13 Feb 1748/1749. This shows that although it was officially 1748 in Britain, he thought that it should really be 1749 like it was in most of the rest of the world. Entries like that make it easy for you

However, most vicars never even thought about the rest of the world. Their year began on March 25th and that was that. So the modern researcher has to be vigilant. If you don't make the appropriate note while you're looking at the parish register, here's what will happen:

Say you've transcribed the following entry from a parish register:

13 February 1748 baptized Mary dau of Robert Turner and his wife Elizabeth

One day you'll look at this entry and ask yourself: "Did I convert this date to the new style? Or is this the old style date?" And the only way you can answer the question is to get the parish register back and look at it again. What a pain.

So here's a rule to follow: When writing dates dates that fall between 1 January and 24 March in years prior to 1752, write the date in this way: 13 Feb 1748/49. This is your indication that, while it was 1748 in Britain, according to the Gregorian calendar it was 1749.

You should know that, even after 1752, Lady Day causes problems for researchers, as many clergymen tried to pretend that nothing had happened: For some years after 1752 they continued to start their yearly parish register on Lady Day, and just changed the year at January 1. You have to be very careful to note the change of year, a challenge when searching the register on microfilm. Lady Day is often the cause when two genealogists have both transcribed the same date but one researcher has the year 1 year earler than the other.

For a more detailed explanation, here is a link to a more in-depth tutorial.

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