How to Find Easter Dates

Easter in 2011 falls on April 24, as late in the calendar year as I ever remember.  It actually hasn't been this late in my lifetime - the last time it fell on April 24 was 1943.

It won't fall on April 24th again until the year 2095; although in the year 2038, Easter will be on April 25.

Easter Sunday can come as early as March 22 or as late as April 25.   Here are Easter dates from 1999 until 2019:

• April 4, 1999 
• April 23, 2000 
• April 15, 2001 
• March 31, 2002 
• April 20, 2003 
• April 11, 2004 
• March 27, 2005 
• April 16, 2006 
• April 8, 2007 
• March 23, 2008 
• April 12, 2009 
• April 4, 2010  
• April 24, 2011 
• April 8, 2012 
• March 31, 2013 
• April 20, 2014 
• April 5, 2015 
• March 27, 2016 
• April 16, 2017 
• April 1, 2018 
• April 21, 2019

Why is it helpful for those researching their ancestors to know the Easter date of a particular year? 

In my family, Easter always seemed to be a family picture day wearing new Easter finery.  I have a slew of old family photos marked Easter 1955 and Easter 1939, etc. and I want to add metadata with the actual date to the scans of the photos.

I also have found a newspaper article about an ancestor that printed his wedding announcement by saying "After Easter services, the wedding ceremony was performed".  The newspaper has a publication date, of course, but it didn't date the wedding date except to say it was on Easter Sunday. Newspaper wedding announcements can appear weeks after the actual service is performed, so all the newspaper told me was the year and that the wedding was on Easter.

You can find Easter dates by using the Easter Date Calculator to help date old photos and historic newspaper articles