Dates Section

Overview

The Dates Section controls the display of dates and lifespans. In this context, a date refers to a single date value, and a lifespan refers to the combination of the date from the primary birth event and the date from the primary death event.

A single date field may contain two dates for "Date1 or Date2" dates, "From-To" dates, and "Between Date1 and Date2" dates. In those cases, Gedcom Publisher will format both dates using the chosen date format.

Gedcom Publisher provides several pre-defined date formats you select from the pull-down menu, and you can also key a custom date format in the textbox. Date formats control how dates appear when converted from the internal date format to output text.

Gedcom Publisher provides several lifespan formats that control how Gedcom Publisher formats a lifespan. The lifespan format determines whether the lifespan appears inside parentheses, whether it includes abbreviations before each date, etc.

Properties

Subject Date Format

The Subject Date Format determines the format of the date in the person entry summary text that is typically near the top of the person entry. The default value is "aaaa d Mmmm yyy".

Subject Lifespan Format

The Subject Lifespan Format determines the format of the lifespan in the person entry summary text that is typically near the top of the person entry. The default value is "b. birth, d. death".

Family Section Date Format

The Family Section Date Format determines the format of dates that appear in the Family Section and Parent Section of the person entry. The default value is "aaaa d Mmmm yyy".

Family Section Lifespan Format

The Family Section Lifespan Format determines the format of lifespans in the Family Section and Parent Section of the person entry. The default value is "(b. birth, d. death)".

Person Entry Date Format

The Person Entry Date Format determines the format of dates that appear in a person entry other than dates that are formatted by more specific properties in the Dates section. The default value is "aaaa d Mmmm yyy".

Person Entry Lifespan Format

The Person Entry Lifespan Format determines the format of lifespans in the person entry other than dates that are formatted by more specific properties in the Dates section. The default value is "(b. birth, d. death)".

Name Index Date Format

The Name Index Date Format determines the format of dates that appear in name indexes. The default value is "aaa d Mmm yyy".

Name Index Lifespan Format

The Name Index Lifespan Format determines the format of lifespans in name indexes. The default value is "(b. birth, d. death)".

Predefined Date Formats

Special Rules for Date Ranges

When a date is a date range such as "BET 1 JAN 1902 AND 31 MAR 1902", the results will vary based on the date format and whether the month and year are the same in both dates.

Lifespan Formats

GEDCOM Dates

Gedcom Publisher supports the GEDCOM date specification for Gregorian dates. Gedcom Publisher supports some additional date capabilities including sort dates and non-standard date modifiers such as "circa".

Date Modifiers

Gedcom Publisher supports the following date modifiers. Modifiers appear before the date and modify the meaning of the date. The list includes the standard GEDCOM date modifier keywords such as "BEF" as well as a description to indicate what the keyword means ("Before"). Gedcom Publisher accepts some keywords that are not included in the GEDCOM specification. They are indicated with + in the list. Gedcom Publisher also supports variations of each keyword when parsing dates, so CA, CIR, and CIRCA are all valid in Gedcom Publisher and mean the same thing.

Date Range

Gedcom Publisher handles dates from 1 Jan 9999 BCE to 31 Dec 9999 CE. Dates are always considered Gregorian dates, however, so age calculations for dates spanning any calendar change will not be accurate to the day.

Date Sorting

When two dates are the same except for the date modifier, the dates will sort by the modifier and the sequence is as shown in the modifier list above. Here is an example of how some events would sort if they each had the date 1 JAN 1900 modified by a keyword as follows:

BEF  1 JAN 1900
TO   1 JAN 1900
EST  1 JAN 1900
ABT  1 JAN 1900
CA   1 JAN 1900
SAY  1 JAN 1900
CAL  1 JAN 1900
INT  1 JAN 1900
     1 JAN 1900
AFT  1 JAN 1900
BET  1 JAN 1900 AND 1 JAN 1901
     1 JAN 1900 OR  1 JAN 1901
FROM 1 JAN 1900 TO  1 JAN 1901

When sorting a date with missing parts, such as a year with no month or day, Gedcom Publisher uses zero for any missing date parts. There is one exception: for an After date, Gedcom Publisher uses 99 for a missing month and/or day. That leads to this sequence:

BEF 1900
    1900
BEF JAN 1900
    JAN 1900
BEF 1 JAN 1900
    1 JAN 1900
AFT 1 JAN 1900
AFT JAN 1900
    FEB 1900
    DEC 1900
AFT 1 DEC 1900
AFT DEC 1900
AFT 1900

Gedcom Publisher supports date sorting for BCE dates, i.e., "100 BC" sorts before "99 BC".

Sort Dates

Gedcom Publisher supports sort dates for names and events. The sort date determines where the name or event will sort chronologically, and the sort date may or may not be the same as the tag's date. Sort dates are not part of official GEDCOM, but several programs include sort dates in GEDCOM files and Gedcom Publisher loads them. If a program does not include a sort date, Gedcom Publisher will use the date as the sort date.

RootsMagic and The Master Genealogist use the GEDCOM tag "_SDATE" to specify the sort date, and that GEDCOM tag is the default used by Gedcom Publisher. Gedcom Publisher can be configured to accept a different GEDCOM tag.

Date Text and Invalid Date Values

The GEDCOM specification allows dates to include a date phrase, i.e., text that is not an acceptable date value, "but which gives information about when an event occurred." The GEDCOM rules specify that date phrases must be enclosed in matching parentheses. Gedcom Publisher supports date phrases.

Whenever Gedcom Publisher encounters an invalid date value in a GEDCOM file, it treats the date value as a date phrase.

For example, some programs allow text to be included in a date field, and a user might specify "Unknown" as the date for a death event. The resulting GEDCOM would be:

1 DEAT
2 DATE Unknown

For the above records, Gedcom Publisher will issue a warning because the date value is invalid. However, Gedcom Publisher will store "Unknown" as a date phrase and it will appear in the output for the Death event.

Valid GEDCOM for the above case is:

1 DEAT
2 DATE (Unknown)

GEDCOM Date Handling

The table below describes how Gedcom Publisher treats certain GEDCOM date input examples.

Custom Date Formats