Another Farewell and Calculating Days of the Week for Genealogy

We learned this week of the death of another St. Louis Genealogical Society volunteer, Don Wallace, who was instrumental in getting the society's congregations and cemetery projects underway on our website, and we were sorry to hear of his passing. More on Don and his contributions to StLGS in the "In Memoriam" section at the beginning of this post.

When you were young, you might have had an older relative who delighted in reciting an old English nursery rhyme to you concerning the day on which you were born. Or perhaps, you may have pulled the poem out when your first child, grandchild, niece, or nephew was born. It's a sweet ditty, although how accurate it is is questionable, but it reminds us that knowing the day of the week on which an event falls is sometimes important. This week we will take a look at perpetual calendars, how they work, and where you can find them.

In Memoriam . . . Don Wallace

When St. Louis Genealogical Society began the process of enhancing our website many years ago, we searched for a volunteer with the technical skills to build databases for our congregations and cemeteries that included addresses, photos, histories, and GPS information. These databases needed constant updating and correcting and the information contained in them had to be accessible to the StLGS technology team as they built the web pages to go with each cemetery, church, and synagogue.

Don was that volunteer. He worked tirelessly to build what he liked to call an "evergreen" database that he kept on our society's computer network and added to whenever he came across changes. He solicited a cadre of photographers who went out on location and added photos to as many congregations and cemeteries as possible. Because of his efforts, our massive congregations and cemetery projects went from being accessible only in our office to being available on our website by any member of StLGS. The data he collected on each location, plus additional information added by our technology team has meant that thousands of people now have been able to locate records of their St. Louis ancestors.

Born in Colorado, Don received a degree in chemistry and moved to Washington to work for the government. Don and his family moved to St. Louis in 1966 where he worked for Monsanto for thirty years. He had many interests, including travel, photography, and genealogy. We extend our deepest sympathy to his wife Mary Anne and his daughter Andria.

※

Perpetual Calendars

First, that little poem, so you can keep it in mind as we go, originally published in England in 1838, but probably based on older versions:

Monday's child is fair of face.

Tuesday's child is full of grace.

Wednesday's child is full of woe.

Thursday's child has far to go.

Friday's child is loving and giving.

Saturday's child works hard for a living. 

And the child that is born on the Sabbath Day

Is bonny and blithe and good and gay.

(Just as an aside here, while researching this poem, we discovered that Charles Addams, who created the Addams Family, named the daughter Wednesday because of this rhyme!)

The original intent of this verse was likely to teach children the days of the week, but it also reflected an early belief that days of the week mattered. In fact, soothsayers and fortune tellers have often made prophecies based on little more than the day someone was born.

Calculating Days of the Week

This is a bit tricky because we haven't always been on the same page of the same calendar. Depending on time and location, our ancestors used a variety of calendars, both secular and religious. The whole issue of calendars and dating is much larger than this blog, so we will refer you to a monograph available on our website that can help you walk through the various calendars people have used in the past.

Creating Calendars Online

Perpetual calendars work on mathematical algorithms that take into account calendar variations, and they are both accurate and fun to use. Here are two examples that you may enjoy sampling. In this first site, you can enter any year or country in the top fields to create a specific calendar for that time/place. 

The result is a full year calendar, three squares by four squares, with phases of the moon, holidays marked in red, and the option to customize by adding major religious holidays or printing options. Scrolling down the results page will give you links to other calendars and date calculators. Access this calendar maker at timeanddate.com, https://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/generate.html.

🔷

Another no-frills but easy to use calendar creator is located on a website called SearchforAncestors.com There is a calculator for any month and year at http://www.searchforancestors.com/utility/perpetualcalendar.html and an even simpler one to calculate days of the week at http://www.searchforancestors.com/utility/dayofweek.html. Scroll down to the bottom of the first page to see a list of important calendar definitions too. 

You can see how easy this is to use, as it reminded us that 9/11 occurred on a Tuesday. Other links on the bottom of the page include an age calculator, one for tombstones, and one to calculate Easter.

Of course, you will want to start with your own birthdate, and we do hope the day on which you were born has only influenced you in the most positive of ways!