Genealogy / Are recorded birth dates sometimes different from the actual? [16]

I have recently been given a couple letters from 25 years ago written by an old friend of the family. He was the Metropolitan of The Holy Orthodox Catholic Patriarchate of America located in New Jersey so I hope I can trust him as a source. He wrote that my great grandfather's name was Maxym. On the birth record with the date discrepancy I mention in the OP shows his name as Maximus. While not proof that the birth record I received from the Archives is that of my grandfather, it does make it more likely...right?

Genealogy / Are recorded birth dates sometimes different from the actual? [16]

I had forgotten all about the 2-week calendar difference.

It's interesting if someone's birthday is per the Julian calendar, then they moved to where the Gregorian calendar is in use, would that person still have used the old date they were familiar with as their birthday?

Grandfather's Birth date per WWII Draft card: Sept 16, 1886

Birth date given by Warsaw Archives: Oct 3, 1886 (17 days later).

If they are taking this from old records, then this should be the Julian calendar and when converted to the modern Gregorian, wouldn't it go the other direction, to Oct 15th?

I used a calendar converter at fourmilab.ch/documents/calendar/

In any case, without accurate dates, I'll need some other family info to fill this side of my family tree and none exists...or at least hasn't turned up yet on any of the ancestry type sites.

Genealogy / Are recorded birth dates sometimes different from the actual? [16]


The date I am going by comes from his WWII draft registration card from 1942. That's also the source of his place of birth.