Tracing a living relative by married name

[pasdlm]

A female relative was born in South Africa in 1963 (Exact name, date and place known to me). To trace this person, if still alive, I would need to find a possible married name. Any suggestions on how to find a South African marriage document? It maybe possible thereafter to find this person on some voters roll, white pages, telephone directory, or similar. Any help would be appreciated please!

[rutti tutti]

Hi there,
There are no easily accessible records in Sa . You would only be able to get a copy of marriage if you knew all the details of both persons. This query is very recent so i suggest a post in the local You magazine on the desperately seeking page. Facebook is also a good place to look as well.
Please be aware of the living persons guidelines when replying... I am sure you are aware of them.
Ruth

[pasdlm]

Thank you, Ruth. I was hoping that there would be some 'Record Office' in South Africa where one could go to in person and search through the marriage records, but this does not seem a possibility if you need to know all the details of both persons. I shall try the suggested You magazine (presumably they have a webpage) and/or Facebook.

[pasdlm]

Further to my previous posting, I looked up the webpages of The National Archives and Record Service Of South Africa. They say something about the most recent 20 years records are NOT available for public consultation which implies that provided the marriage took place more than 20 years ago then the records may be scrutinised.

I also found something about the 1989 Voters Roll of South Africa which gives surname, maiden name, first names, dob, occupation and address of voters. This is a public document and therefore if I knew the married name, then I could find a willing person to peruse it at one of the main National Libraries.

[pampoen]

Do you know what town she grew up in? If so perhaps look at the local schools she may have attended and see if any of these schools are on Facebook, she may then be on one of these groups as a member.

Cheers Derek

[pasdlm]

I know the town she was born in and where it was likely that she went to school, provided that she continued to live in that town and did not move elswhere. However, the Facebook page of the nearest school is blank - so no luck there, I'm afraid.

[Mole]

You mention that this person was born in SA, so parents or at least one parent must have been here at the time. If those parents, whose surname your presumably know i.e. the same as the person's you seek, died in SA, there may be a deceased estate file - and hence a Death Notice - for one or both of the parents, held at the archives repository in the relevant province. Depending on circumstances - e.g. if the daughters were married at the time of the parents' deaths - the married names of daughters are given in their parents' Death Notices. Where complications could arise is: if the parent or parents died comparatively recently, their deceased estate files would be held by the Master of the High Court in the area where death took place, rather than at the archives repository in that province.
Mole

[pasdlm]

That's a good suggestion! I am aware that South African Death Notices are pretty comprehensive. But it is unlikely that the parents of the person I would like to trace are deceased. Maybe one but it is not very likely that both have died. However, I shall try to look to see if there is a death notice for any of the parents. I am not sure though that the Cape Archives would have updated their online index to include the more recent deaths. The last time I looked, death notice references up to about the late 1960's were available online. Even tracing the parents would be difficult because their names are very common in South Africa.

[Mole]

In clarification, it's not a question of 'updating the online index' to include more recent deaths. Deceased estate files up to specific years in each province are referenced on NAAIRS. Any estates after those years are held by the Master of the High Court. There is no legal or other ruling that the Master should, as is commonly thought, 'transfer' such material to archives repositories. In fact, transfer is incorrect terminology in these circs. Storage space is the big problem - both for the repositories and for the Master's Office. In Natal, deceased estate files after 1974 are held by the Master, most of them in offsite storage depots according to year. It is probable that most repositories wouldn't welcome a sudden influx of a couple of decades' worth of deceased estate files to add to their own limited storage facilities! Putting that aside, if you haven't recently done any NAAIRS searches try for one or both the parents' deceased estates - if it is a commonly-found surname you could reduce the number of hits by adding a forename, a spouse name etc. There might even be a divorce file for the actual individual you seek - usually such files contain a copy of the marriage certificate and are well worth accessing.  Mole