A death certificate is a civil document which is also used as a medical certificate of the cause of death, issued by a doctor on behalf of  the registrar of deaths for the Department of Home Affairs that declares the date, location and cause of a person’s death.

The Death certificate which should not be confused with the Death Notice and should always be completed by a person who is legally competent to certify the death.

Burial or cremation cannot take place without this document.

Older certificates are housed in the National Archives in their respective Provinces. Modern day death certificates need to be obtained either from the Department of Home Affairs or they can be found in a deceased estate file at the Master of the High Court.

Modern day death certificates will give the following information: Deceased persons ID number, Surname, First Names, date of birth, gender, marital status, date of death, place of death and cause of death. This information is dependent on how old the certificate is. Older ones will not have ID numbers on them but will have race instead.

Death certificates are generally of little use for a genealogist in as much as it does not provide occupation, parents details, information on spouse or children.  Estate papers today includes a death certificate  and a death notice but estate papers prior to 1940 did not include death certificates.

Death notices are by far the most important document for any family historian or genealogical  researcher.