Julian & Gregorian Calendars

Tomorrow is the anniversary of my grandfather’s parents’ wedding. The translated record starts out, “ It happened in town Tomaszów(Tomaszów Lubelski) on day November 3/15.1885.” You will notice that there are two dates listed-- one in the Julian calendar and the other in the Gregorian calendar. The Julian calendar was used by the Russian government and the Russian Orthodox Church. All birth, marriages and deaths were registered by the churches. During the time period of 1868 to 1917 because Russians had control of the area in which my ancestors lived, the priests were required to write the records in Russian. During the time that Poland was occupied by Russia, the use of Polish in the schools and in civil records was prohibited. Poland (and the rest of Europe) had previously been using the Gregorian calendar, which is the calendar in use worldwide today. After 1917 the records were written in Polish and the use of the Gregorian calendar was resumed. So when there are two dates listed, the second one is the one that would fit our calendar currently.