01/14/2026
Judge Henry Bry was born on this day (Jan 9, 1781) in Geneva Switzerland, the son of a watchmaker, Ami Bry. Pictured is his baptism certificate, dated Brumaire 21, Year 8. What kind of a date is that you might ask!
Former ULM Graduate School History intern Kristin Batten transcribed and translated this document in 2021 and in doing so we learned about the French revolutionaries changing the name of the months from the Gregorian calendar (January - February - March, etc) to the “Republican” calendar: so months were called Vendémiaire (grape harvest) - Brumaire (mist) - Frimaire (frost), etc.
This naming change lasted from 1793–1805 until Napoleon returned it back to the Gregorian calendar. So you’ll see in the document that “le vingt un brumaire an 8” was the twenty-first of Brumaire year eight, which converted to the Gregorian calendar was November 12th, 1799.
But then I wondered why a Swiss baptism certificate would follow this French system and in looking it up, turns out Geneva was annexed by France in 1798 for about 15 years.
