Categories: Styles and Standards | WikiTree Help
Here are tips on using WikiTree's date fields. Also see the page on Name Fields.
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For inputting dates, any of the following are acceptable:
Other formats (e.g. 12/12/12, 12.12.12) will be rejected.
Some family tree software isn't as strict about date formats as WikiTree, but usually this is because they don't store the information as a date in their database. It's simply a string of text. This gives you more freedom on the entry but restricts the utility. Forcing dates to be "normalized" enables many of the features and functions on WikiTree.
Each date fields has a status indicator next to it. You can generally select one of the following:
Don't be afraid to enter uncertain dates. All of WikiTree is a work-in-progress. As long as it's marked as uncertain, a guesstimate can still be valuable.
If you know a person has passed away but you don't know their death date, select "uncertain but non-living".
If you know a person is living, select "still living" by their death date. This will help make sure that the profile stays private.
Sometimes you know a date (e.g. December 12) but not the year. Unfortunately, it is not possible to enter a date without a year.
If you have a decent guess at the year, you could enter it and mark the date as uncertain. Be sure to explain it all in the text of the page.
Unfortunately, our system does not have the capacity to store date ranges, e.g. "1980s" or "Between 1981 and 1989."
The best you can do is choose one date, use the "before this date" or "after this date" status indicator, and explain the issue in the text of the page.
Years before 1000 should be entered with the zero, e.g. 0100 for the year 100 AD.
BC dates cannot be entered. All dates are assumed to be AD and will be misinterpreted if they're not.
People born more than two thousand years ago are prohibited on WikiTree.
We attempt to use the modern Gregorian calendar in all cases, i.e. "New Style" dates.
It doesn't matter if the Julian or another calendar was in use at the time the date was recorded. Of course, this can be very difficult in practice. If you're unsure of something, write an explanation in the bio/text space of the page.
See Wikipedia:Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates for more explanation, and this page has some tips for conversions.
Here is a simple rule of thumb for the most common case: If you see a date from the 1600s or 1700s that has a slash in it, e.g. 1718/19, use the later of the two dates, e.g. 1719.
The way dates appear on WikiTree is contextual. If space is not a problem, they appear in long form (e.g. December 12, 2012). If space is an issue they are abbreviated like DD Mon YYYY (e.g. 12 Dec 2012) or just a year is listed.
On Private profiles, birth decades are listed instead of full dates.
Also see: Christening, baptism, and burial fields
This page was last modified 09:53, 1 February 2013. This page has been accessed 4,215 times.