Dates should be entered into the relevant fields in the form “dd mmm yyyy” for example:
1 Jan 1940
The date input fields are more flexible than this, and can also recognised various other versions, for example 1/1/1940 or 1.1.1940, but will be corrected to the normal form as shown above. Dates can also be entered as only a year, or month and year.
Some dates aren’t known exactly, for example, you might have an estimated year of birth. So dates can be entered as approximate:
Abt 1940
Will be interpreted as “about 1940”. This will be shown on charts as “c.1940”, for circa 1940. NB: alternatives for approximate are Cal (for calculated) and Est (for estimated). These are still shown on charts as “c.” but might be useful for documenting how a date was arrived at.
It is quite common to have an age at a particular date. To help enter this situation quickly, the date fields allow a basic formulae to be entered, starting with the = symbol. For example:
=1921-8
will be corrected to
Abt 1913
Sometimes, a date is a range. This can be entered using “From” and “To”, or either alone. For example:
From 1 Mar 1852 to 10 Mar 1853
Dates can also be entered as before, after, or between:
Bef 1850
Aft 1860
Bet 1850 and 1860
Dates can also be entered in various other formats, which can convey particular meaning...