Death/Probate in South Africa

[Janeada]

Hi Everyone,

I'm hoping that someone will be able to tell me what I've found and give me a clue as to how I check it out. I'm in England so I'm a long way away.   

I've been looking at the National Archive of South Africa web site and searching databases there for a man named Thomas William Fisher who was born (1879) in Darfield near Barnsley, Yorkshire, England, but who is known to have been in South Africa at the beginning of the Great War. He enlisted there with the Mounted Brigade of Signallers and rose to the rank of Sergeant Major. In 1918 he was a constable with the police at Kroonstad.

I appear to have found a record of either death or probate on the NASA site but (a) with a name like Fisher I can't be sure its him and (b) I'm unsure exactly what it is I've found so can someone help please?

The record is as follows:

DEPOT - NAB
SOURCE - MSCE
TYPE - LEER
VOLUME_NO - 0
SYSTEM - 01
REFERENCE - 28049/1938
PART - 1
DESCRIPTION - FISHER, THOMAS WILLIAM.  (S/S FISHER, ANNIE).
STARTING - 1938
ENDING - 1939

I've worked out that NAB is the repository at Pietermarizburg. This fits with what I know of Thos. Wm.  What are MSCE and LEER? There is another record like this for Annie Fisher wife of Thos. Wm. Are there any deaths indexes I could look at?  I'd be grateful for anything anyone can say to help on this one.

Thank you in advance

Janeada

[ouma]

Hi Janeada

LEER means file in Afrikaans and MSCE is Master of Supreme Court Estates

Hopefully someone in that area can do the lookup for you 

Ouma

[Janeada]

Thank you Ouma

That has cleared up some of the confusion. Does the Supreme Court Estates handle the probate of wills and letters of administration etc?  It would be nice if Thos. Wm. Fisher left a will and I could get hold of a copy. I know nothing of his life in South Africa except a bit about what he did during the First World War.

Janeada

[ouma]

Hi Janeada

The document will be at the Pietermaritzburg Archives which is in Natal unfortunately

I'm in Cape Town, we have the beautiful Table Mountain! 

You could always email them giving all the details, source, ref number etc you put in your first post and ask how much it would cost?

pmbarchives at dact dot kzntl dot gov dot za

Ouma 

[Janeada]

Ouma,

Thanks for all you help.  I'll maybe do that

Janeada