Wonderful post Bob, I no longer feel... lonely :)
In my country of origin (i.e. Romania), we also have dual dates for events in historycal or religious texts, and I had some vague knowledge of the Julian/Gregorian calendars - thank you very much for your details on the subject.

>Those of us who deal with such old records DO care ...

You say that it is actually kind from VFP to signal that beyond 1753 is uncertain teritory, and I agree. Why then it does this only when you are riding on gomonth().


>but then I don't rely on GOMONTH() in the first place since it is >mathematically inconsistent. That is,
>
> GOMONTH({05/31/1999},-1) = {04/30/1999}
>but
> GOMONTH({04/30/1999},1) = {05/30/1999}
>
>(or x-1+1 does not equal x). That's not VFP's fault, per se, but the nature of our screwy calendar. But the precise meaning of a tombstone that reads "Died 31 May 1899 at age 1 month" can't be determine by something as simplistic as GOMONTH( ). The same is true about dates prior to 1753.

True, it is date math though. I mean, if you don't use gomonth(), what would be the birth date for somebody "Died 30 May 1899 at age 1 month"?

>Hope this helps.
It sure did, thanks again.