How to use NAAIRS for electronic retrieval of documents

The links to the relevant systems

1. Naairs database selection

### ALL FAMILYSEARH AFRICA BASE PAGE

2. Cape Province 1834-1950

3. Free State 1834-1950

4. Free State 1951-2000 - just scroll back at the top, not sure how to reference this correctly.

5. Transvaal 1869-1958

6. Natal 1846-1950

STEP 1

Open the Naairs web page (1. Naairs database selection) and select the archive of the province in which the person you are looking for was living / deceased. The legend below is provided for clarity:

KAB = Cape Town

VAB = Free State

TAB = Transvaal

NAB = Natal

Alternatively select RSA - All Archives Repositories and National Registers of non-public records if you don't know where the person was living!

A search screen will then open once you select a database.

It is best to enter first names and surnames in separate lines and use the AND as selector.

To narrow down results, you can also play with the beginning from and end dates at the bottom part of the search screen.

Click search when done.

A screen will appear that shows how many matches were found.

Select the Results Summary at the top line, and browse through - you are specifically looking for Death Notices in the correct year.

Right click on all likely candidates to open the reference in a new tab.

Look at the details, you are interested two fields. The REFERENCE and the YEAR. You may also be lucky enough to find the name of surviving spouse on this screen, which can point you towards whether it is indeed the correct person.

Write down all combinations of likely matches to your search. (hopefully there is only 1)

See also Naairs Help

STEP 2

Open the relevant database in the links provided at the top of this page and below:

2. Cape Province 1834-1950

3. Free State 1834-1950

4. Transvaal 1869-1958

5. Natal 1846-1950

You will notice they are sorted by year. Sometimes more than one year. First the REFERENCE numbers, then the YEAR. (all except VAB - there only reference)

Scroll down on the list and find the entry where your REFERENCE and YEAR will fit in.

Go to the right of that line and right click on the Camera icon, and open in new tab.

STEP 3

You will see there are thousands of entries, and you now have to find the correct entry.

Luckily they are in order, but the number of the entry is not equal to the REFERENCE.

So you would have to jump around until you find the correct one. You should use the following process:

Say you are looking for REFERENCE 2111 and the first entry is 1801 and the last entry is 4800. (3000 records in total therefore) - a good place to jump to is therefore record entry 300 (1801+300=2111)... and then browse up and down until you find 2111.

STEP 4

Remember to create a link of the person's GENI profile to the URL link of the entry... and to add to sources.

References found on NAAIRS that may be online
Linda Farrell - ozfarrells@gmail.com

To be used in conjunction with South Africa’s National Automated Archival Information Retrieval System (NAAIRS) : http://www.national.archives.gov.za/naairs.htm

Matthew Bode has made a video on how to use the links below. Watch the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0PqeC9fPBw

1. Cape Marriages (Indexed on NAAIRS and FamilySearch): https://familysearch.org/search/image/index?owc=collection%2F193534... Look under the town given in NAAIRS description, then the volume no and then the reference

2. Cape Estate files (1979-2000) LOTS MISSING unfortunately (NOT indexed on NAAIRS - Some of it indexed in Maseti files and some here: http://www.e-family.co.za/cdni/cdni_index.htm) https://familysearch.org/search/catalog/2156332?availability=Family...
3. Cape (KAB) Estate files, SOURCE MOOC (1951 - 1954)( Indexed on NAAIRS):

3.1. https://familysearch.org/search/image/index?owc=Q8GM-RMS%3A23179570...

3.2. Craig Sheldon: The Estate files for 1951 - 1953 listed under "Western Cape Archives Records, 1792-1992" is incomplete; but if you go to the collections for the individual years, they appear to have the complete set of Estates from 1951 - 1954: 1951: https://familysearch.org/search/catalog/2059484 1952: https://familysearch.org/search/catalog/2212726 1953: https://familysearch.org/search/catalog/2212749 1954: https://familysearch.org/search/catalog/2241500

4. Cape (KAB) Estate files, SOURCE MOOC (before 1950) (Indexed on NAAIRS): https://familysearch.org/search/catalog/331262?availability=Family%... From finding it on NAAIRS, go straight to the link and scroll down to look for the DN number (reference on NAAIRS). It will be inside a range Click on the little camera and find the image. There is no reference to the image number anywhere, so you'll have to jump around a bit until you find the exact image

5. Kimberley Cape (KAB) Estate Files, SOURCE MOK (Indexed on NAAIRS): : https://familysearch.org/search/catalog/25414?availability=Family%2... From finding it on NAAIRS, go straight to the link and scroll down to look for the DN number (reference on NAAIRS). It will be inside a range. Click on the little camera and find the image. There is no reference to the image number anywhere, so you'll have to jump around a bit until you find the exact image

6. Pretoria/Transvaal (TAB) Estate Files before 1951 (Indexed on NAAIRS): https://familysearch.org/search/catalog/188051?
availability=Family%... From finding it on NAAIRS, go straight to the link and scroll down to look for the DN number (reference on NAAIRS). It will be inside a range. Click on the little camera and find the image.

There is no reference to the image number anywhere, so you'll have to jump around a bit until you find the exact image

7. Transvaal/Pretoria (TAB) Estate Files (some of 1951 onwards) (Indexed on NAAIRS):

7.1. https://familysearch.org/search/catalog/2630283?availability=Family...

7.2. https://familysearch.org/search/image/index#uri=https%3A%2F%2Ffamil...

7.3. 1951 – 1952: https://familysearch.org/search/catalog/1114859?availability=Family...

7.4. 1956: https://familysearch.org/search/catalog/2246437?availability=Family...

7.5. 1957: https://familysearch.org/search/catalog/2291016?availability=Family...

7.6. ONE 1966 film: https://familysearch.org/search/catalog/2144007?availability=Family...

8. Free State (VAB) Estate files: 1951 - 2006 (NOT indexed on NAAIRS) You are given the option to search, but not everything is indexed yet, so you may want to browse through as well https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1407787

9. Free State (VAB) Estate files: before 1951 (Indexed on NAAIRS): https://familysearch.org/search/catalog/195564?availability=Family%... From finding it on NAAIRS, go straight to the link and scroll down to look for the DN number (reference on NAAIRS). It will be inside a range. Click on the little camera and find the image. There is no reference to the image number anywhere, so you'll have to jump around a bit until you find the exact image

10. Natal (NAB) estate files (Indexed on NAAIRS): https://familysearch.org/search/catalog/229462?ava ilability=Family%20History%20Library

11. Natal (NAB) Wills: https://familysearch.org/search/catalog/285402?availability=Family%...

12. Eastern Cape Estate files (NOT indexed on NAAIRS but partly indexed on http://africangenealogy.blogspot.co.za/) : https://familysearch.org/search/image/index#uri=https%3A%2F%2Ffamil... *Some extra files available here, from Craig Sheldon 1970: https://familysearch.org/search/catalog/2246727?availability=Family... 1971: https://familysearch.org/search/catalog/2279850?availability=Family...

1972: https://familysearch.org/search/catalog/2037006?availability=Family...

13. Estate files (blacks), Transvaal (South Africa), 1931-1982 https://familysearch.org/search/catalog/1162069

14. Zululand deceased estates (NOT indexed on NAAIRS): https://familysearch.org/search/catalog/263897?availability=Family%... Please note, it starts at item 5 (image755). Only a few

15. Death notices, South Africa, South West Africa, Rhodesia, Swaziland https://familysearch.org/search/catalog/128171?availability=Family%...