English Family History I: Civil Registration Quiz

Answer: General Register Office

The General Register Office is a British Government Department which handles the registration of births, marriages and deaths in England and Wales. It is part of the Office of National Statistics (ONC).

Answer: Divorces

When Civil Registration started divorce for ordinary people was virtually impossible, and needed an Act of Parliament. After divorce became easier, their records were never the concern of the General Register Office.

Answer: Quarter

Indexes from July 1837 through December 1983 are grouped into quarters.
They are generally referred to as the March, June, September and December quarters, although of course they contain the preceding two months also.

Answer: July 1837

Following the Births and Deaths Registration Act and the Marriages Act of 1836, registration began on July 1 1837. The first quarter that can be searched is, therefore, the September 1837 quarter.

Answer: The registration was done after March 31st.

The GRO index has always included both England and Wales.
Since 1875 there has been a penalty for not registering a birth for any reason. Illegitimacy was not an excuse, nor was not being bothered.
Parents were allowed up to 42 days (6 weeks) from the birth to register it, so they had up to April 15 in Gran's case. A registration between April 1 and 15 would appear in the June Quarter.

Answer: Her marriage certificate

In order to get her birth certificate, you have to know her maiden name anyway!
Death certificates contain very little useful information, and certainly not her maiden name.
A marriage certificate will tell you her maiden name, her previous married name if widowed or divorced, and her father's name and occupation.
If the marriage had been after Jan 1912, the surname of the spouse is shown in the GRO index when you have looked up the other party. Buying a certificate is not necessary for this information alone.

Answer: All of these

Most websites charges a small fee for searching. The other places do not charge, but you probably have to travel there.
The web site FreeBMD, which does not charge is also very useful as it has an inclusive index so you don't have to search quarter by quarter. On the other hand, it only goes up to around 1910, and is incomplete, which can lead you into errors.
Not only most County Record Offices, but also many big city libaries have copies on microfiche.

Answer: Yes, from the church marriage register in the County Record Office.

If you have a good idea where the marriage took place, especially if it was in a country parish, you may find it in the parish marriage register. It is in exactly the same format as the Civil Marriage Certificate, and is probably in the original hand-writing of the participants. Any Civil Certificate is a copy made from the original by a Registrar. The cost of a photocopy is usually far less than the fee charged by the GRO or the District Register Office, who both charge the same.
If the marriage was in a Register Office or an obscure church, you are out of luck!

Answer: From 1866

Changes in 1866 not only added the age at death to the death indexes, but also from that time all index entries were typed or printed rather than hand-written.

Answer: Red, Green and Black

The application forms for these certificates, if you order them by post or at the Family Records Centre are in the same colours,
red for a birth, green for a marriage and black for a death certificate.
As far as I am aware, no consideration has been given to making birth colours pink for a girl and blue for a boy.