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Rolldal t1_jdh8ele wrote

Just for the record (sic) accurate records were kept in Great Britain from 1837 (Civil registration bill being passed in 1837) and France from shortly after the French Revolution. This is aside from the parish records some of which (especially the Methodist ones) carry a great deal of detail. The best of these latter records record not just the names of parents but the mother's maiden name, father's occupation, location (ie farm name for instance), and date of birth if it differed from that of baptism. In England law was passed in 1538 by the then new Church of England making the keeping of such records a legal requirement, though most parishes did not enact it until 1598 and even then records were patchy (not to mention disruption by Civil war in the 17th century). As with any sytem there will be those who slip the net.

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