Baptism records are an important source of genealogical
information. In many countries, churches were the only
institutions keeping records of baptisms, and hence of births.
The baptism record This record is normally a very short piece of
text. However, important information can be learned from it:
name of child, date of baptism, date of birth, parents' names,
witnesses names, place of residence. Furthermore, from the
signatures one can determine that the parents/witnesses had
basic schooling. The Catholic Church started to keep registries
for the sacraments of baptism and marriage. This started in the
14th century in Italy and France. The oldest known registries
are kept in the city of Geiry (France) and date back to 1334.
The Catholic Church decided during the Council of Trente on
November 11, 1563 on the rules concerning the keeping of parish
registries for baptisms and marriages. Since 1614 death records
also became obligatory. These dates are hence the earliest dates
one can realistically attempt to obta