In FamilyTreeFactory, date values are internally recorded using the Gregorian calendar. For entry (user interface) and output (treeviews and file cards), either the Gregorian or the Hebrew format can be used. The date entry format can be selected under the Program Options on the Basic Configuration tab. The date output format can be selected under the Treeview Options on the Box Content tab.

When importing from Gedcom files, the Julian, Hebrew and French Revolutionary date values are automatically adjusted to the Gregorian calendar. For manual entry of date values that are not available in the calendar date entry format, a Calendar Calculator can be used to convert dates.

When converting between Hebrew and Gregorian date values, the target date is generally calculated that most closely corresponds to the source date. The time, which is generally not available anyway, is not taken into account. This is necessary because the Hebrew day begins in the evening and not at midnight. If date values are used without an entry for the day (meaning only month and year are available), the conversion may be unclear because of the continuous shift between Gregorian and Hebrew months. There are cases in which two consecutive Hebrew months have the largest overlap with the same Gregorian month. These cases are recognized during the Gedcom import and recorded in the conversion log. These cases are, however, quite unlikely. Date values with a month and no day value are unusual. Also, the effect only occurs on about every 23rd Hebrew month.

The permissible date range of FamilyTreeFactory is limited in the past by 01/01/0001 (Gregorian) and in the future with the Hebrew 29 Elul 9999:

 

In additional to normal date entries, the Gedcom standard allows for text additions to qualify an entered date or give a time range. The Gedcom standard also allows pure text phrases in date fields. PAF5 defines additional special characters and codes for date entries.

In FamilyTreeFactory, not evaluable or invalid date entries are treated as date text phrases and saved in parentheses in the date fields. The three date text phrases defined in PAF5, "stillborn", "child" and "deceased" are accepted as the date of death and saved without parentheses. The allowed text additions are defined based on the Gedcom Standard 5.5 and PAF5.

The following tables show the possible date formats, based on Gedcom Standard 5.5, PAF5, and the non-Gedcom-standard terms frequently used in Gedcom files as well as their plain-text equivalents for saving them to FamilyTreeFactory records:

 

 

Key:

 

With text additions and month abbreviations, the use of upper or lower case is not relevant.

According to the Gedcom standard, the date of death for children is handled as follows:

FamilyTreeFactory combines died as an infant (infant/inf) and died as a young child (child/chi) together in the category child.

 

 

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