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

What is in This Collection?
This collection includes death records that cover the years 1895-1972. 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.

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

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. 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.

The Union of South Africa was established in 1910 by combining four British colonies into four original provinces of the Union: Cape Province, Transvaal Province, Natal Province and Orange Free State Province. In 1994 all of these provinces were dissolved and the current nine new provinces were established. The Cape Province was broken up into three smaller provinces: the Western Cape, Eastern Cape and Northern Cape. Parts of it were also absorbed into the North West.

Reading These Records
These records are in Afrikaans and English. For help reading these records see the following guides:
 * Afrikaans Word List
 * Netherlands Language and Languages
 * South Africa Language and Languages

What Can These Records Tell Me?
The following information may be found in these records:


 * Name, age and gender of deceased
 * Date and place of death
 * Cause of death and duration of illness
 * Race and residence
 * Occupation and marital status at time of death


 * Intended place of burial
 * Name of informant and their residence
 * Medical Man's (Practitioner's) Name
 * Date and place of registration

How Do I Search This Collection?
Before searching this collection, it is helpful to know:
 * Name of the person
 * Approximate date of death

How Do I Analyze the Results?
Compare each result from your search with what you know to determine if there is a match. This may require viewing multiple records or images. Keep track of your research in a research log.

What Do I Do Next?
Civil registration gives important information about an individual, including personal details that may also help in finding other ancestors of the same family. If you have found the record of your ancestor, the following information can aid you in your research:

I Found the Person I Was Looking For, What Now?

 * Use the birth date or age along with the place of birth to find or verify their birth records and parents' names
 * Use the birth date or age along with the place of birth to find the family in census records
 * Use the residence and names of the parents (if the deceased is a child) to locate church and land records
 * Use the parents' birth places to find former residences and to establish a migration pattern for the family

I Can’t Find the Person I’m Looking For, What Now?

 * Switch to a different record collection. Depending on the time period, Church Records may be more useful
 * Standard spelling of names typically did not exist during the periods our ancestors lived in. Try variations of your ancestor’s name while searching the index or browsing through images. Pay special attention to how the name should have been pronounced and try variations on the pronunciation
 * Remember that sometimes individuals went by nicknames or alternated between using first and middle names
 * Check for a different index. Local genealogical and historical societies often have indexes to local records
 * Search the indexes and records of nearby localities

Citing This Collection
Citations help you keep track of places you have searched and sources you have found. Identifying your sources helps others find the records you used.