Is there a more likely interpretation of the date of birth when a baptism record describes an infant's as as "de xxxxx dias de nacido"? xxxxx is a number, siete, quatro, un, etc. I'd like to calculate DOB, but might be wrong by a day if my assumption is wrong. So, generally, was a child "de un dia de nacido" born today or yesterday?
Gracias,
Eduardo
San Jose, CA
Interpreting DOB from Baptism
Some priests used inclusive date counting, some exclusive date counting. In the inclusive one you include all the days, so if the child was 3 days old and baptized on Sunday, he was born on Friday (Friday, Saturday and Sunday makes 3 days). If they used exclusive date counting, then you exclude one day, and the child from the previous example would have been born on Thursday. I agree checkng for saints days may give you clues regarding which system they used on that parish at that time.
VN
Interpreting DOB from Baptism
When I find baptisms that mention, for example, baptized on March 25 and "de 3 dias de nacido, I substract the number of days to the day of baptism, and I write the day of birth as born "circa March 22". I have seen it several times that this usage is not consistent and sometimes, they include the day of the baptism as part of that number, but other times, they do not.
Sometimes there may be clues, for example, the "santoral catolico" mentions what saints are celebrated on each day, and for example if the child is called Guadalupe and I have to pick between December 11 and December 12, I will be inclined to go with the day of the Virgin of Guadalupe. But in many instances there are no clues, so I always use the word "circa" if there is no specific date mentioned.
saint's days
@Steve: Thanks for the insight! I had not thought to use saints says as a check.
DOB
If a baby is born today may 8th and it says de cinco días nacido then the baby was born may 3rd.
Danny C. Alonso
Easy to be off by a day or two.
Victoriano is correct. Some priests used inclusive date counting, some exclusive date counting in Baptismal records. So it easy to be off by a day or two.
When working with a census, the year maybe be off almost two years.
Rick A. Ricci