History of Parish Registers: "In 1497 Cardinal Ximenes introduced the registration of baptisms to his province of Toledo, then throughout western Europe. No doubt his aim was to check the growing scandal of wholesale divorces, disguised as decrees of nullity, based on the alleged spiritual kinship contracted at baptism between the baptised and his relatives, and the sponsors and their relatives. How far this notion had gone may be seen from such instances as that of John Hawthorn of Tunbridge, who was sentenced in 1463 to be whipped thrice round church and market for incest, i.e. for marrying as a second wife the god-daughter of his first. On 11 November 1563, the Roman Catholic church ordered the general keeping of baptismal and marriage registers.

Meanwhile in England, a raft of reforming measures was consolidating the split with Rome and the Reformation. Among these, on 5 September 1538, Thomas Cromwell, the Lord Privy Seal and the king's vicegerent, ordered that every parson, vicar or curate enter in a book every wedding, christening and burial in his parish, with the names of the parties. The entries were to be made each Sunday after the service, in the presence of one of the churchwardens. The parish was to provide a 'sure coffer' with two locks, the parson having custody of one key, and the wardens the other."

so any genealogy before these dates is largely fiction unless tied to the great families of land owners.