South Africa Natal 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 Natal were created in 1846. Prior to 1994, death notices for KwaZulu-Natal were all created by the Master of the Supreme Court of the old Natal jurisdiction.

Available Indexes
Indexes for these notices are available in paper form or on microfilm at the FamilySearch 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 Pietermaritzburg Archives Repository by clicking here. This index searches all types of records held within the Pietermaritzburg Archives Repository; to list only death notices and estates, type in "MSCE" as one of the search terms for entries. The volume number and reference, are essential in order to find a copy of the death notice and estate record. The reference should look something like this:

MSCE ref. 5/159, John Hendrick Strydom, year 1880

Microfilmed records at the FamilySearch Library
These records have been microfilmed through 1950 and are available at the FamilySearch Library; click here for the catalog entry. Death notices on the catalog will be noted with a V. number, followed by the reference number and year. To find the film for James Smith, The entry for 1880 reads:

v. 5/no. 1-245 1878-1880

John Hendrick Strydom is notice number 159 of volume 5; the notice would be located on this film.

Death notices not microfilmed
Records after 1950 are not filmed, but must be obtained in person from the Pietermaritzburg Archives Repository in Cape Town, South Africa. They are located at:

Pietermaritzburg Archives Repository 231 Pietermaritz Street Pietermaritzburg 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.