South Africa, Cape, Probate Records of the Master of the High Court, 1822-1990

What is in This Collection?

This collection includes records from 1834-1989. Probate records often include heirs, locations, property transfers, wills, and other important information. The most useful records in the collection are the death notices which give much more information than a death certificate. The probate records are contained in packets with a record cover identified by an assigned file number. When a person died, the nearest relative or other connection should have completed a death notice and sent it to the Master of the High Court within 14 days of the death.

This collection includes several handwritten and typed indexes. You can use these lists to quickly scan for your ancestor’s name and where his or her records are located. The index includes the name of the person who died, the death dates, the name of the spouse, and the probate file number. The death notices and wills included in the probate files are hand-written. The death notices are on a pre-printed form.

The original probate records from the Master of the High Court in Cape Province, South Africa are located in the Cape Archives Depot, Cape Town.

Additional records and/or images may be added to this collection in the future.

Reading These Records

These records are in Afrikaans and English. For help reading these records see:

• 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:

Collection Content

Sample Images

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  1947 Death Notice

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  1947 Will Page 1

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  1947 Will Page 2

Digital Folder Number List

This collection was published as a DGS browse collection. The list does not contain any description of the DGS folder's content. A table listing each DGS number and its contents can be found at South Africa, Cape, Probate Records of the Master of the High Court Digital Folder Number List.