Je parles anglais, alors j'ecrit anglais parce que je voudrais être précis.

When it is written, "la nuit dernière," is the date ambiguous between the previous day and the current day? In the United States, most government records refer to the previous night as the previous day, and anything during the same night but the next day as "early morning."

Merci!

-Jacob

I am not sure that I understand your question. If the parish priest did not record the exact time of birth (which was extremely rare), then it is impossible to tell from la nuit dernière whether the birth was before or after midnight. My personal policy in these cases is to record only the date of the baptism.

But definitely, the word nuit in French does not have exactly the same meaning as night in English (where it is sometimes synonymous with evening - but never in French).

So, the short answer is: la nuit dernière means during the last nighttime period preceding the writing of this record, so any time between sunset and sunrise.

If there was a custom to celebrate birthdays the day following the night of birth, I'd prefer to respect that. Meanwhile, I'm edging the time period where I wish this website would allow a designation of Julian Calendar vs Gregorian Calendar. France (and Scotland) implemented the Gregorian Calendar before England, and there are a lot of migrations between what is now Canada and the United States. Also, the year would start on March 25 under the English civil calendar before the British Empire implemented the Gregorian Reform.

would you like my take on it??

la nuit derniere means last evening( may be after midnight??

la  nuit precedente means the night before( before  midnight???

who knows   ??   they had their  own terms,  none were the same

they were   in  charge  of the records  and they really did a great job of it

  in my family the same priest baptized   5 children within 7 years

and I am the only one who has my mother's real/true  name   recorded

explain that one ....

I saw  a  birth record nee" hier" and the person claimed there was no date

but the  records( in  the church register) usually start with the day, the  month and year

so he was born december 31st ....  unless the priest had too much wine

I would say beyond what the record keepers considered, if inconsistent, rather ask what families considered when it came to children born at night. Maybe a birthday was the first daylight after the child's birth by tradition? I don't know, but I think it's a question that needs to be answered rather than left ambiguous, even if the answer is that it's ambiguous.

     Thank you Jacob

I would like to add    after 35yrs of  volunteer work with the local society  there are more questions than answers in the registers 

Hi,

La nuit derniere means the night before on the Act.

There's no question that it's the night before the act. The ambiguity is about the night before the act potentially spanning two days (before midnight and after midnight) depending on a number of factors. The primary question is whether the birth date should be recorded as the day after or the day before when it states in the baptism record that the person was born "la nuit derniere," without any other information given. Presently, I'm leaning to the day after because I know in the United States we celebrate birthdays rather than birthdates, and (without any other evidence mind you) the first daylight after a person's birth could therefore be considered their "birth day." That's wholly an interpretation of modern language on my part, and not historical evidence (i.e. I've never studied the word birthday linguistically).