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From: Wally & Elrine Greig <>
Subject: Re: Tracing Ownership of land
Date: Tue, 03 Mar 1998 21:55:16


At 02:37 PM 3/3/98 +0200, you wrote:
>Hi all,
>
>Would anyone be able to tell me how I might trace the deed of an area of
>land I know was owned by My GGrandfather around 1900. This was in the
>suburb know known as Randburg in the Transvaal that was.
>
>Any help gladly appreciated.
>
>Many thanks
>
>Karen
Hi Karen, you will need to visit both the Suryveyor General's offics and
the Deeds Office. They should be housed in the same building and they
should be in Pretoria. You should have the full names of your GGranfather.
Start at the Deeds Office, tell them your story and they should be able to
help you. Copies of all title deeds, whether old or current, are held
there. Their charges are modest. The title deed will give you a description
of the properey; something like"portion B of the farm Karensvlei in the
division of somewhere" If you are lucky, the deed will also contain a
diagram of the property. If not ask them where you can find one and I guess
that they will refer you to the Suyveyor General's office.

In theory everything you want should be there.

Of course if you have a friend, in Pta who is either a land surveyor or a
Conveyancer, you may be able to do some arm twisting and get them to do it
for you - free of course!

PS I have just read Michael's reply. Randburg, as a suburb with sub
divisions, is relatively knew. Around 1900 there would have been no
streets, and probably no erven. The land was probably all farms or, at best
small holdings at that time. I am not familiar enough with Archive records,
so I can't comment on that suggestion.
Iam reasonably familiar with Deeds Office and Surveyor Generals procedures
to say that you well find what you want there. When the farms or small
holdings were subdivided into erven, all the subdivision plans would have
been lodged at the SG, and as the erven were sold new title deeds would
have been created, for each individual erf. The "parent" title deed of the
farm or small holding, would have been endorsed, with each sale, to record
that a subdivision had been registered.

Good hunting

Wally Greig

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