South Africa, Register of Slaves - FamilySearch Historical Records

South Africa

What is in the Collection?
This is a collection of slave registers kept in Cape Province, South Africa. It contains registers of people taken in South Africa to be deported and sold into the slave trade. Some of the owners are free persons of color, or have notes accompanying their name which explain their relationship to other owners.

The registers are in bound volumes, usually in chronological order, but are incomplete with some sections missing. Other volumes contain birth, marriage, death and other records pertaining to slaves. Entries are handwritten.

What Can this Collection Tell Me?
Registers and marriage records are presented in handwritten forms. Birth and death records are handwritten narratives.

Register
 * Date of registry
 * Name
 * Gender
 * Age or date of birth
 * Mother's name
 * Country/homeland
 * Occupation
 * Registry of debts
 * Remarks

Birth
 * Mother's name
 * Age of mother
 * Residence
 * Occupation
 * Date of birth
 * Gender of child
 * Name of child
 * Name of owner

Death
 * Gender
 * Name
 * Date of death
 * Name of owner

Marriage
 * Date of marriage
 * Names of bride and groom
 * Gender
 * Age or date of birth
 * Place of registration
 * Name of proprietor
 * Residence
 * By whom and where marriage was performed
 * Date of baptism
 * Whether marriage performed with consent of owner

Other records may include information on manumissions, transfers, and inheritances.

How Do I Search This Collection?
To begin your search it is helpful to know the name and some other identifying information such as age, residence or former owner. Remember that there may be more than one person in the records with the same name as your ancestor and that your ancestor may have used nicknames or different names at different times.

Search the collection by image comparing the information with what you already know about your ancestors to determine which one is your ancestor. You may need to compare the information about more than one person to make this determination.

What Do I Do Next?
When you have located your ancestor’s record, carefully evaluate each piece of information given. Save a copy of the image or transcribe the information. Whenever possible, look at an original document. There may be additional information on the document that has not been transcribed.

I Found Who I was Looking for, What Now?

 * Use the place of residence, age, and other information for each person to search for the individuals in other records.
 * Use information found to search in other nearby locations.

I Can’t Find Who I’m Looking for, What Now?

 * There may be more than one person in the records with the same name.
 * Look for variant spellings of the names. You should also look for nicknames and abbreviated names.
 * Look for another index. Local genealogical and historical societies often have indexes to local records.
 * Try alternative search methods such as only filling in the surname search box (or the given name search box) on the landing page leaving the other box empty and then click on search. This should return a list of everyone with that particular name. You could then browse the list for individuals that may be your ancestor.
 * Former slaves may have had used multiple names or changed their names until they decided upon one particular name. Search all possible names along with variations or spellings of their known names.
 * Study the life and records of the slave owner and his family. Your ancestor’s life was inseparably connected with the slave owner. Your ancestor will be listed in records of the slave owner’s property.
 * Search for oral histories.

Citing This Collection
Citing your sources makes it easy for others to find and evaluate the records you used. When you copy information from a record, list where you found that information. Here you can find citations already created for the entire collection and for each individual record or image.

Record Citation (or citation for the index entry):

Image Citation: