South Africa Transvaal Death Notices

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Death notices are essential documents for research in South Africa. These important documents typically supply age, date, and place of death, whether married nor not, names of children, and, if known, the names of the parents of the deceased, so are of great value.

Death notices were held under the jurisdiction for which they were created. The first death notices in Transvaal were created in 1873. Prior to 1994, death notices for the four provinces that were created from Transvaal (Gauteng, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, and North-West) were all created by the Master of the Supreme Court, under the old Transvaal jurisdiction.

Available Indexes
Indexes for these notices are available in paper form at the Family History Library; see the catalog entry here.

The South African National Archives have also indexed these records online. To search the death notices, visit the National Archives index page for the National Archives Repository (which includes the formal Transvaal Province) by clicking here. This index searches all types of records held within the National Archives Repository; to list only death notices, type in "MHG" as one of the search terms for entries. The volume number and reference, as well as the year, are essential in order to obtain a copy of the death notice. The reference should look something like this:

MHG ref. 33266, Abraham Johannes Kruger, 1917.

Microfilmed records at the Family History Library
These records have been microfilmed twice. The first series ran through through 1939 and is available at the Family History Library; click here for the catalog entry. The second series seems to have filmed the entire collection, but includes entries through 1950; click here for the catalog entry. Death notices in the catalog will list the reference number and year. For example, the first series of films available for 1917 are shown as follows:


 * 1) 29639-30750 1916-1917 - Film 991029
 * 2) 30751-31754 1917 - Film 991030
 * 3) 31755-32761 1917 - Film 991031
 * 4) 32762-33700 1917 - Film 991032
 * 5) 33701-34693 1917-1918 - Film 991033

Abraham Johannes Kruger is ref. #33266; he would be located on film 991032.

Death notices not microfilmed
Records after 1950 are not available on microfilm. FamilySearch has some estate files for the Transvaal available online; as of June 2015, estate files for the years 1955-1960 can be accessed at. Other years are not available through FamilySearch, but must be obtained in person from the National Archives Repository in Pretoria, South Africa. They are located at:

National Archives and Records Service The National Archivist 24 Hamilton Street Arcadia, Pretoria South Africa

If you are not able to obtain the record in person, the South Africa National Archives has provided a list of researchers at the link here.

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