In 1536 an attempt was made to start parish registers, but it finally became effective only as a result of a mandate of 5th September 1538. The registers were to be entered weekly, and were often kept on loose sheets of paper, so it is not surprising that only 800 registers still exist from as early as 1538. In 1598, Queen Elizabeth approved an order of 25th October 1597 that registers be kept in parchment books and that all old register copies be copied into such volumes. The clergy were however given the option of starting from 1558 (the beginning of the Queen's reign) so a number of registers now start from that date. The paper originals have nearly all disappeared. In the transcription, errors naturally crept in. From 1598, copies of all entries had to be sent annually, at Easter, to the bishop's registry (bishop's transcripts).
The Lanfear entries have been extracted from numerous sources: original registers and bishop's transcripts, microform copies of registers, the published transcripts of registers, the International Genealogical Index (IGI), the British Vital Records Index (VRI), the National Burial Index, indexes made by individuals and family history groups.