Dates on this blog are shown in two ways. One is the day (such as the 2nd or 25th), then the name of the month written with a three-letter abbreviation (Jun or Nov), then the year (1604 or 1830). One example is 16 Apr 1789. Occasionally, a year may be written with a dual designation such as 21 Jan 1690/91. This is necessary to show the original date was recorded as 1690, but under our dating system the year was 1691. This is due to the difference between the Julian and Gregorian calendars’ dating systems. Until 1752, England and Colonial America used the Julian calendar in which the year started on 25th of March (Lady Day) and ended the following 24th of March.
Another difference in Colonial and present-day calendars stemming from the date differences is that March was considered the first month of the year and February the twelfth. Dates written 26:7:1648 or 26 7ber 1648 were both the 26th of September (our nineth month) 1648.
The second way dates are shown in this blog is 1664-05-11, which is done to keep dates chronological since computers put files in numeric order. To keep a timeline straight, dates must be ordered by year, month (with a two-digit designation) and then day.