Death Notices are considered as one of the most important documents a family researcher can use in tracing their ancestors. Start searching or browsing through our recently updated records now.

A Death Notice is the official documentation handed to the Master of the High Court whose office has jurisdiction over the estate. It is used for informing the Master whether the deceased had assets, property or possessions to be passed on to heirs or claimants such as creditors, providing names of potential heirs, supplying the Master with details of where the deceased resided at the time of death and informing the Master whether the person reporting on the death is qualified to do so.

Death notices as we know them today only came into existence in 1834 and sometimes it took several years until someone filled it in. However there were also death notices earlier than 1834 for slaves which appear in the deeds office as slaves were listed as property and not people. These early death notices can be found under the following references in the Cape Town Archives:

KAB MOOC 6/1 Vol 3 (year 1758 – 1796)

KAB MOOC 6/2 (year 1797 – 1821)

KAB MOOC 6/3 Volume 4 (year 1822 – 1833).

Want to know more?

The Death Notice contains fields for the following information:

• Surname of deceased
• Full first names
• Identity number
• Nationality
• Age
• Occupation
• Ordinary place(s) of residence during the 12 months prior to death and the Province(s).
• Date of birth
• Place of birth
• Date of death
• Has the deceased left a will?
• Marital status at time of death
• If married, place where married
• Full names of surviving spouse and his/her occupation
• State whether marriage was in or out of community of property/whether accrual system is applicable
• (a) Name(s) of predeceased spouse(s) and/or divorced spouse(s) (state opposite name of each whether predeceased or divorced)
• (b) Date of death of predeceased spouse(s)

• Master’s office(s) where predeceased estate(s) is/are registered and number(s) of estate(s), if available.
• Full names of children of deceased (state whether major or minor or predeceased and in the latter event, whether they left issue and, if that be the case, the full names of such issue)
• Names of parents of deceased (state whether parents alive or deceased).
  • (a) Father
  • (b) Mother

   

• Name and address of person signing the death notice.
• Dated at ……. the ……. day
• Signature ………….
• Capacity………………

One must bear in mind that when a person dies, the family is distraught and one of the members of the family will normally be the person filling in the Death Notice.

Expect errors in the information given if:

• child has died before his/her parents, the child may not always be listed.
• the deceased has been married more than once – the first spouse is sometimes omitted
• a neighbour or friend filled in the form, they would not necessarily know who the deceased’s parents were, but sometimes guess.

Sometimes the death notice states a female’s surname as her maiden name (especially in Afrikaans families), even though she is married. People also tended to lie about their ages or sometimes do not know when and where they were born. Please remember that a death notice could either be perfect, semi-perfect or completely inaccurate and could send you on the wrong trail in tracing your ancestors. Make sure that you have other resources to complement and verify this information.

Please remember that a Death Notice is completely different to a Death Certificate and should not be confused. Death Notices and Death Certificates are generally found within a deceased persons Estate Papers.

Please post enquiries and questions to our forum board.

Alan Bowe

Submit genealogy-related photos and get a free 12-month subscription to Ancestry24 plus 3 CD books of your choice. Create at least one album between now and 30 April, and populate it with photographs. There is also a free 6-month subscription or CD of your choice for the person who adds the second most items.

Visit our image gallery and see the wonderful photographs and documents that our members have submitted as well as images that our volunteers as well as staff members have added.

The more images you add the more chance you have of finding those lost relatives. So if you have old birth certificates, death notices or photo’s of your grandmother, please add them as soon as you have moment.

From today onwards as well all MWEB members will be given the opportunity to have UNCAPPED ADSL – this means there is no limit on how much you sue on the internet and now reason not to start scanning in and uploading all those photos.

Congratulations to Justin Crossley for wining our photo competition. Justin added 124 fantastic images on his family history to our image gallery. Esme Van der Westhuizen was our runner up with 104 stunning Pienaar family photos.

He has also provided us with a brief story of his Crossley family history to share with everyone

Our gallery is a splendid way of sharing and archiving your documents and family photographs that can easily be share with family and friends around the world. This platform also provides a wonderful place for other people researching the same family as you to connect and help one another.

If you live in KwaZulu-Natal and you want to trace your family tree your first port of call should be the Pietermaritzburg Archives Repository.

“There is a notion that the archives are elitist, but they are accessible to everyone and we can offer a service in the three languages of the province — Zulu, Afrikaans and English,” says Pieter Nel, assistant manager: Repository Management, Department of Arts and Culture at the Pietermaritzburg Archives Repository in Pietermaritz Street.

“The majority of our users are people­ who are interested in family history,” says Nel. “Sometimes people think it’s a case of coming in and we can just give them their family history. We can’t, I’m afraid, but we can give them pieces of the jigsaw puzzle.”

You might find several pieces of the jigsaw in the deceased estate files.

“In these you find death notices and these can give you a variety of information — the person’s occupation, the names of spouses, parents, and children. We have these files from 1846 up to 1974. You can search our database on the website to see if we have any records.”

The repository holds these documents thanks to an arrangement with the Master of the High Court, which is the office of origin. A similar arrangement with the Department of Home Affairs sees the repository holding birth, marriage and death registers for certain districts in the province. “These are not on the website so you have to physically go there and do research,” says Nel.

If your ancestor was an immigrant the European Immigration Records can also be of help. “But these are only for people who came on assisted passages. In the 19th century there were several immigration schemes to get people to come to the colony of Natal. We have registers of all those but not of everyone who came to the province. But newspapers such as The Witness have shipping lists of new arrivals.”

Civil registration documents, church and cemetery registers held by the repository can also be useful plus you can obtain a copy of the booklet Leafing Out Your Family Tree compiled by Nel, which provides a step by step guide to tracing your family tree as well as explaining exactly what is in the repository and how you can best access information.

“But you have to do your homework before you come,” cautions Nel. “Have discussions with family members, make sure that names are correct. You won’t get very far with a nickname.”

Over the years there has been an ongoing interest in family history according to Nel.

“But there was a peak several years back when people were trying to find out if they were eligible for United Kingdom ancestral visas — they had to be able to prove that a grandparent was born in the UK.

These days we also get a lot of overseas e-mails from expats trying to trace family origins.”

Nel acknowledges it is “more challenging” for black people to trace family history via written records but there are deceased estate files for blacks. These were compiled by magistrates and Native Affairs Commissioners and predominantly relate to rural people.

“If your relative was a mineworker and that relative died in Johannesburg, the record would come back to the person’s province of origin and be sent to the local magistrate or commissioner,” explains Nel.

The Pietermaritzburg Archives Repository also holds archives of the Indian Immigration Department which include marriage registers (1891 to 1963) and deceased estate files (1900 to 1961).

The registers of Indentured Indian Immigrants (1860 to 1911) are held by the Durban Archives Repository. These archives are often used by Indian South Africans who apply for a Persons of Indian Origin (PIO) card, which permits people with Indian ancestry to live and work in India on a permanent basis.

“People like to connect to their roots but it’s also important to see how history can have a practical application,” says Nel.

Acknowledgement: Natal Witness + Stephen Coan

NAAIRS (pronounce like “stairs”) is one of the most powerful research tools used in South African genealogy. Managed by the National Archives Repository in South Africa, the National Automated Archival Retrieval System provides a search facility to all the main repositories associated with the Archives.

Here you will be able to search for death notices, estate papers, wills, adoption papers, legal documents, coats of arms and much more. You will only, however, be able to see a set of reference numbers and a brief description of the documents concerned. You cannot view or order these documents, but will either have to write to the archives concerned, taking with you the reference numbers relating to the documents you require, or go in person.

Where do I find Marriage Records in South Africa?

The initial starting point to get a copy of a marriage certificate is:

• The Master of the High Court or the Church, Mosque or Synagogue where the marriage took place.
• The Department of Home Affairs and for older marriages the National Archives.
• Below is a list of Marriage records

• Cullinan Marriages
• St. Georges Cathedral Cape Town Marriages
• St. Georges Cathedral Military Marriages 1811 – 1829
• All Saints Somerset West Marriages
• Free State Marriages
• Grahamstown Cathedral Marriages
• Mixed marriage records
• Methodist Marriages
• Namaqualand Banns
• Namaqualand Marriages
• St. France’s Simon’s Town Grooms Index
• St. Francis Simon’s Town Brides Index
• St. Francis Simons Town Marriages
• St. John’s the Evangelist Marriages Cape Town 1853 – 1925
• St. Mary’s Barkly West Marriages
• St. Mary’s Cathdedral Johannesburg Marriages 1887 – 1895
• St. Mary’s Port Elizabeth Marriages
• St. Olav’s Marriages Durban 1890 – 1979
• St. Paul’s Rondebosch Marriages 1929 – 1955
• St. Peters Mossel Bay Marriages 1855 – 1879
• St. Stephen’s Marriages Paarl 1876 – 1909
• Swellendam Anglican Marriages 1850 – 1887
• Wynberg Methodist Baptisms 1836 – 1910

Department of Home Affairs

For these certificates you will need to apply+ to the Department of Home Affairs, the official holding office for South African  marriages. Applications should be lodged at your nearest Home Affairs office if applying from within South Africa. If living abroad, you should contact the nearest South African Embassy, Consulate or High Commission. Always request a full, unabridged vault copy. There is no public access at all to the marriages registers or indexes held at the Department of Home Affairs.

When contacting the Department of Home Affairs

Expect delays as they are very understaffed. Average waiting time is three months.
Take down the details of any official you deal with.
Supply an ID number for the person whose certificate you wish to obtain to speed up the process.
There is a charge of R45.00 per item.

National Archives

The National Archives is the custodian for marriage certificates on behalf of the Department of Home Affairs up to the early 1970′s. A closed period of 20 years is applicable for access to  Marriages records.

Below is a table for commencing dates for the registration of  marriages in the various old provinces:

These indexes and registers are heavy and cumbersome. You will first need to know exactly which magisterial district the event took place before you can request the index. These indexes are not made available electronically, but the Western Cape indexes can be searched on Ancestry24. The Home Affairs Western Cape Index (HAWC) is housed in the Cape Town Archives as are the Home Affairs Eastern (HAEC) and  Home Affairs Northern Cape (HANC).

How to search for marriage certificates in the Archives

As an example, if someone was married in Cape Town you will need to check places like Cape Town Central, Wynberg, Docks, Green Point, See Point, Woodstock, Observatory etc – all separate registers. To find the marriage certificate of an individual you will need to first consult the index to the marriages in the area in which it was registered, e.g. Worcester. The earliest reference number begins with 1/3/57/4/1 – which covers 1895 to June 1905.

Once you have got the register 1/3/57/4/1 you will need to look for the dates between 1895 – 1905 for that marriage registration.
The size of the initial index will depend on how many volumes of registers.
Some of these books are very large and the pages are difficult to photograph because of the size. They are on the top floor of the archives. First make sure you get your volume numbers correct before you attempt to order any of these books. Once ordered, be prepared for a very long wait.

Black marriages

Records of black marriages can be found under the Superintendent of Native Affairs in the Cape Town Archives covering the years 1877 – 1900.

Other resources

• Anglican Church Archives at the William Cullen Library at Wits
• Methodist Church Archives at the Cory Library at Rhodes University
• Catholic Archdiocese of Cape Town

The signatures of our ancestors are windows to our past. Before the invention pen and paper people like the Khoi and the Egyptians used rock art and hieroglyphics to depict there name names. There was no other form of confirmation of names except those folk lucky enough to be able to read and write.

Signatures tell us whether or not our ancestors were literate and also how educated they were as well as whether or not they were beginner writers, nervous about writing or perhaps they had a disability of some kind.

One of the first things our ancestors probably learnt to write was there name and to sign their name – this form of identification would have at first probably be thought as the work of the devil as how could anyone try to see if they were really that person? Most of us write out signature without even thinking and sometimes find it very difficult to try (just for fun) to copy our grandparents or great grandparents ones. If you have spent time in the National Archives and looked through the countless death notices or estate papers between the years 1840 and 1880 – much of the writing is very similar albeit many of you would find it difficult not only to read the persons name who signed the document even though the actual person who signed the document did not fill it in making it even more intriguing. .

As the makeup and material of paper and pen has changed over the centuries so have signatures also changed. They way we were taught to write and by whom make a large impact on how our handwriting and signatures have endured. I am certainly not proud of my handwriting and find that many youngsters today have even worse writing skills – the emphasis in basic writing skills is one the wane and is a great loss to anybody tracing their family history.

How many of us actually print out and file an email ? We forget that in a 100 years’ time [email protected] might be your great grandson’s signature and there will be nothing in paper format – heaven forbid as it will all look the same!! We all love keeping old letters and either filing them in box files or and old – and we know that the ink there will remain there much longer than from a printer cartridge.

To get the most out of signatures we need get the most information from the records that are available, we have to decipher these records and put meaning into the symbols we see on the old documents or papers that we find. As we read wills, death notices, baptisms, marriage certificates or even simple birthday cards we very often find that the text is gibberish to us and sometimes completely un-comprehendible.

You will find out as your research goes back in time the further back you go the more difficult it becomes to decipher old signatures. It is important to remember that many of our names today are still spelt phonetically meaning written the best way you could and how it sounded.

In many instances old handwriting looks similar to our modern day shorthand with dropped or (upper or lower) letters in names. Assuming what these names should or should not be can be a fatal mistake. If someone’s name is written in a signature such as Edwd does not necessarily mean the persons name is Edward as it could be Edwin. Names should be transcribed exactly as they are written – notes can always be made but never change the original record.

Signature of David Senekal

The signature of David Senekal (believe it or not?)

One of the letters in the alphabet that has changed the most is the Double SS which is used to be written as FF or fs like the surname Burgeff which is actually Burgess. Over 100 years ago the “s” was often written like a backward “f.” This strange symbol for “s” was used very commonly in instances where there was a “double s.” The unusual s first, called the “leading s.” Then the regular s.