If you are a US citizen and you discuss genealogy with a Brit, be VERY careful how you use dates in describing ancestral data. If you say an event happened 12-6-1872, you will mean it happened on 6th December 1872, but the Brit will read it as having occurred on 12th June 1872! When I raised the point, I advised using three letters for the month to avoid confusion, preferably in the middle.

I raised it in one of the genealogy newsgroups, and it was well received, but brought up other points from colleagues. One is that Canada and South Africa, at a minimum, have adopted the SI standard of Year-Month-day for official usage, and in South Africa it is mandatory. The Mormons (the LDS), who through their pursuit of ancestors have established certain standards - such as Gedcom - which have been accepted by everyone else, seem to have settled on day of month in numerals/month in 3 letters/ year in numerals, and this is what I use in my own records and software. I am still not sure how this website will end up, as it is dependent on existing US software - Plone. We are looking at the situation.

The number of genealogy software programs have expanded amazingly in number, but all have incorporated in their programming the ability of the user to choose whatever style of date he/she wishes, so we all have the choice available to us. While I would appeal for everyone to use letters for the month, and place it in the middle; and the year in full (as we cover many centuries), you still have the choice of year last or first. Whichever you choose, the date should be clear to everyone and this will eliminate the present confusion that can occur. Have a happy time dating!