How do I find out if a Person had an Estate File?

For more than 15 years, GenDatabase has been transcribing old Government Gazettes, documents from the National Archives and more in noting estate file numbers and references. Paid members of GenDatabase will have access to searching millions of estate file references from the 1830's onwards.

For more recent estate files, you can make use of the Master of the High Courts' online system over at https://icmsweb.justice.gov.za/mastersinformation/MastersOfficeWebPortal/DeceasedSearch

You can also make use of online sources like the FamilySearch.org project to search for estate files which has already been digitized and made available online. Unfortunately, not all estate files have been indexed or digitized as yet, and you may need to look these up by going through indexes.