A death notice is the official document handed to the Master of the High Court, whose office has jurisdiction over the estate. A death notice can be the most informative piece of information for anyone tracing their family history or it can be full of errors, This depends on who the informant was.

Not every person who dies has a death notice. It is used to inform the Master whether the deceased had assets, property or possessions to be passed on to heirs or claimants such as creditors. It provides names of potential heirs and details of where the deceased resided at the time of death and informs the Master whether the person reporting on the death is qualified to do so. Generally people with movable or immovable assets, a bank account or policies are issued with death notices.

The Death Notice was introduced in 1834, shortly before the implementation of civil registration in the United Kingdom.

What information does it contain?

Where do I find a death notice?

How can Ancestry24 help?

Index's to Death Notices can be searched for on the National Archives web site as well as on the Ancestry24 Cape Index and Transvaal Index. There is also a growing database of transcribed death notices in our Death Notice Collection