Monday, May 17, 2021

CORA’S SCRAPBOOK ~ A day of the week calculator for the years 1801-1900


This is the story of my journey through Cora’s scrapbook.  Cora Emma Brown is my husband's paternal great grandmother.  She was born 3 Aug 1854 in Syracuse, Onondaga, New York.  She married Thomas Hall (1845-1897) on 5 Feb 1877 in Saratoga Springs, Saratoga, New York. They had one son, Charles Schuyler Hall (1878-1953). 

If you'd like to read all my posts about Cora, I will give a link at the beginning of each new post.  Here’s that link My posts about Cora's Scrapbook

It’s been a few weeks since I’ve written about Cora’s scrapbook.  Today I present something she had pasted into her book that allows you to calculate the day of the week using this chart.



The instructions for using the chart on in a boxed area on the left hand side and read as follows:

NOTE – To ascertain any day of the week in any year of the present century, first look in the table of years for the year required, and under the months are figures which refer to the corresponding figures at the head of the columns of days below.  For example: To know what day of the week May 4 will be on in the year 1870, in the table of years look for 1870, and in a parallel line, under May is fig. 7, which directs to col. 7, in which it will be seen that May 4 falls on a Wednesday.

This is quite clever. Sometimes I think “how did they figure this or that out, back in the old days?”  It seems they could always find a way.

Of course today we can Google the question or ask Alexa, or use our genealogy software programs.

I tested this little handy chart using my Legacy calendar feature.  I picked several months & days in different years. The chart was correct each time.

Why do we as genealogists need to know the days of the week?  I find for me, it most always has to do with a newspaper article or obituary or death notice.  You’ll find the article and it will say “last Sunday” or “next Wednesday.”  We are left to figure out those dates based on the date the newspaper was published. 

If you need a quick way to find days of the week in the 19th century, you might want to print this out and keep it handy.

What other reasons can you think of to use a day of the week calculator?

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2021   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

1 comment:

I look forward to reading your comments. If you have any connection to the people mentioned in this blog, please let me know. I write about mine and my husband's ancestors and would welcome new information or meeting a new cousin or two. Thanks for visiting and come back soon.