South Africa, Cape Province, Civil Records - FamilySearch Historical Records

This wiki article describes a collection that is scheduled to become available for free online at FamilySearch Record Search.

Collection Time Period
Currently, this collection of civil registration records includes only death records and covers the years 1895-1972.

Record History
In South Africa, the National Archives holds records of births, marriages, and deaths on behalf of the Department of Home Affairs. The Registration of births and deaths was made compulsory in 1894 and began in 1895. Indexes and registers are available up to the early 1970s. Compulsory civil registration began at different dates for the various parts of South Africa. For Cape Province, the birth and death records start with the year 1895, and the marriage records start in 1840. In Cape Province, provision was made for voluntary registering of births from 1880. The National Archives of South Africa is the main repository of documents created before 1956. The National Archives has a number of repositories scattered throughout the country; the one for Cape Province is located in Cape Town (Western Cape). The Department of Home Affairs maintains the records of births, marriages, and deaths, but the physical records are not accessible to the public for research purposes. To access information, you must apply in writing to the Department of Home Affairs and give exact information about the event.

Why This Collection Was Created
Civil registration records such as birth, marriages, and deaths are recorded for vital statistics and to better serve public health needs.

Record Reliability
Civil registration records are reliable documents to research for vital information about a person for genealogical purposes.

Record Description
Entries are generally in chronological order and are usually grouped alphabetically by locality. In many cases, the English name rather than the preferred Afrikaans name is used to maintain alphabetical sequence. However, some records are filed out of alphabetical order. Most of the records are handwritten in English.

Record Content
Key genealogical facts found on most death records include: 


 * Name of the deceased
 * Place of residence
 * Age at time of death
 * Gender
 * Occupation
 * Date and place of death
 * Intended place of burial
 * Cause of death
 * Informant personal information, usually a relative
 * Sometimes the names of the parents
 * Date and place of registration

How to Use the Record
Civil registration gives important information about an individual, including personal details that may also help in finding other ancestors of the same family. In the case of deaths records, the place of residence may help you know where to find other relatives of the deceased person. Searching the indexes first may help you locate the actual civil record more easily.

Related Websites
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Sources of This Collection
This is a collection of digital copies of original records that are housed at the National Archives in Pretoria, Republic of South Africa.

How to Cite Your Sources
Instructions for citing this source can be found at: Cite Your Sources (Source Footnotes)

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