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Seven years in every nineteen, the Hebrew calendar adds a thirteenth month. In those leap years the month of Adar becomes two months: Adar I and Adar II. This creates a real question for anyone who died in Adar. In a leap year, which Adar is the yahrzeit observed in?

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What your options are

When you enter a Hebrew date, the month list offers three Adar choices:
  • Adar, for a death in an ordinary year that had only one Adar
  • Adar I
  • Adar II

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What each choice does

Adar observes in the single Adar of an ordinary year. In a leap year, a record set to plain Adar is observed in Adar I. Adar I always observes in Adar I. In an ordinary year, which has only one Adar, that is simply Adar. Adar II observes in Adar II in leap years.
This is the part to know: plain Adar resolves to Adar I in a leap year.Communities differ on this. A widespread practice is to observe a yahrzeit from an ordinary Adar in Adar II during a leap year, reasoning that Adar II is the Adar that carries Purim and is the “real” Adar of that year. Other communities observe in Adar I, and some observe both.If your community observes in Adar II, set those records to Adar II explicitly. Leaving them as plain Adar will place them in Adar I.

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What to do about it

1

Ask your rabbi

This is a question of practice, not software. Your community has an answer, and it may differ from the congregation down the road.
2

Find your Adar records

Filter or search your yahrzeit list for records in Adar.
3

Set them deliberately

Change them to Adar II if that is your practice. Leave them as Adar, or set them to Adar I, if that is.
Do this once, and it holds for every leap year afterwards.

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When the next leap years fall

Hebrew leap years follow a fixed nineteen-year cycle. They are years 3, 6, 8, 11, 14, 17, and 19 of the cycle. You do not need to track this. The system knows which years are leap years and places each observance accordingly. What you do need to do is make sure the Adar records themselves say what you mean, before a leap year arrives.
The year before a leap year is a good moment to review your Adar records. There is no rush in an ordinary year, since all three choices resolve to the same single Adar.

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Families who ask

If a family asks why their mother’s yahrzeit is on a different date this year, and she died in Adar, a leap year is very likely the reason. The date genuinely moved, and it will move back.