South Africa, Register of Slaves - FamilySearch Historical Records

South Africa Cape Province

What is in the Collection?
This is a collection of slave registers kept in Cape Province, South Africa. It contains registers of people taken in South Africa to be deported and sold into the slave trade. Some of the owners are free persons of color, or have notes accompanying their name which explain their relationship to other owners.

The registers are in bound volumes, usually in chronological order, but are incomplete with some sections missing. Other volumes contain birth, marriage, death and other records pertaining to slaves. Entries are handwritten.

What Can this Collection Tell Me?
The records usually contain the following information:

Register
 * Date of registry
 * Name
 * Gender
 * Age or date of birth
 * Mother's name
 * Country/homeland
 * Occupation
 * Registry of debts
 * Remarks

Birth The records are in a narrative format, but usually contain the following:
 * Mother's name
 * Age of mother
 * Residence
 * Occupation
 * Date of birth
 * Gender of child
 * Name of child
 * Name of owner

Death
 * Gender
 * Name
 * Date of death
 * Name of owner

The records Include names of slaveholders and name, sex, age, homeland and occupation of each slave or servant. It also includes information on manumissions, transfers, inheritances, births, deaths, marriages, and ownership. Records may also include the name of the mother, as well as some other vital records.

How Do I Search This Collection?
To begin your search it is helpful to know the name and some other identifying information such as age, residence or former owner. Remember that there may be more than one person in the records with the same name as your ancestor and that your ancestor may have used nicknames or different names at different times. Search by Name by visiting the Collection Page: Fill in the requested information in the initial search page. This search will return a list of possible matches. Compare the information about the ancestors in the list to what you already know about your ancestors to determine if this is the correct family or person. You may need to compare the information about more than one person to find your ancestor.

View images in this collection by visiting the Browse Page: ⇒ Select the “Department” category ⇒ Select the “City or Town” category ⇒ Select the "Parish" category ⇒ Select the “Record Type and Years” that takes you to the images.

Search the collection by image comparing the information with what you already know about your ancestors to determine which one is your ancestor. You may need to compare the information about more than one person to make this determination.

I Found Who I was Looking for, What Now?
When you have located your ancestor’s record, carefully evaluate each piece of information given. Save a copy of the image or transcribe the information. These pieces of information may give you new

biographical details such as a title, an occupation, or land ownership. Add this new information to your records of each family.

I Can’t Find Who I’m Looking for, What Now?

 * There may be more than one person in the records with the same name. *Look for variant spellings of the names. You should also look for nicknames and abbreviated names.  *Look for another index. Local genealogical and historical societies often have indexes to local records.  *Try alternative search methods such as only filling in the surname search box (or the given name search box) on the landing page leaving the other box empty and then click on search. This should return a list of everyone with that particular name. You could then browse the list for individuals that may be your ancestor. *Former slaves may have had used multiple names or changed their names until they decided upon one particular name. Search all possible names along with variations or spellings of their known names.

Citing This Collection
Citing your sources makes it easy for others to find and evaluate the records you used. When you copy information from a record, list where you found that information. Here you can find citations already created for the entire collection and for each individual record or image.

Collection Citation:

Record Citation (or citation for the index entry):

Image Citation: