Birth Dates Formats

Given dates of birth appear in a variety of formats. The following guide explains the most commonly used of these.

Format Example Explanation
DD MMM YYYY 12 Jan 1900 Specific Date, usually from a birth register record
before DD MMM YYYY before 12 Jan 1900 Before a Specific Date, usually from a baptismal record. It is assumed that the child was born very shortly before being baptised. In some cases the birth and baptism would have occurred on the same day
 before MMM YYYY before Jun 1901 Where a birth record has not been found but appearance on another record, usually a census record, gives an age in months
 before YYYY before 1840 No birth or baptism record has been found and no other record has been found that states the person's age. An birth year is assumed based on whatever other information is available. In many cases, the year of marriage or the birth of a first known child is taken to have occured at least 20 years after the person's birth
 after YYYY  after 1840 No record of birth or baptism has been found, and no other record has been found that indicates the birth date but the person is known to have existed. In this case the birth year is assumed to be after the parents' marriage
 after MMM YYYY after Jun 1840 Similar to the previous
 circa YYYY circa 1825 No birth or baptismal record has been found. An indicative age has been found on some other record, such as marriage, death or census. Contradictory ages from some such records are ignored if the indicative year of birth is roughly the same (within say 5 years)
 between YYYY and YYYY between 1820 and 1830 Somewhat similar to the previous, but in this case the indicative ages show a reasonable discrepancy
In all cases where a birth date is missing or incomplete, check the Research Status option near the bottom of the person's record on the site. If this shows "Incomplete" then a more precise date may be provided in future updates to the site.