Birth records South Africa

Indexes to the inventories of birth, marriage and death certificates held in the Cape Town Archives can be found on this page. These records form part of Civil registration in South Africa that began in the Cape in 1895 but birth registration was not official until 1905. The records in the Archives are purely custodians for the Department of Home Affairs and any document from the  Archives will need to be certified for official purposes.

These inventories form the basis of the indexes to birth, marriage and death certificates which are filed in three sections at the Cape Town Archives such as Home Affairs Western Cape, Home Affairs Eastern Cape and Home Affairs Northern Cape.  Each province is broken down into several files and within each file are alphabetically listed towns that provide the references to the main birth, marriage and death indexes and registers for the Cape in the Archives. 

Once you know the area you are looking for the birth, marriage or death certificate you will then need to use the actual indexes for each area that cover specific years. Please note that NO BIRTH CERTIFICATES are held in the archives and they are only birth entries. Birth certificates can only be obtained in person at Home Affairs.

To find out more about birth registers for the Cape you can look here and for the index to the birth registers for Home Affairs Western Cape you can look here.   And Natal Civil registration here.

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