Fellow confused Listers The following are copies of the email queries I have sent to the National Archives of Zimbabwe (converted to plain text format). Any replies I get will be copied back to this mailing list. cheers Pete Whitfield ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Forwarded conversation Subject: Some Queries ------------------------ From: Pete Whitfield <pelejab@gmail.com> Date: 8 April 2011 17:06 To: nat.archives@gta.gov.zw Dear Madam/Sir through a genealogical mail listing I belong to we have discovered a wealth of information in photographic records of death notices listed through the FamilySearch website. Some of the listers are confused by some of the abbreviations used and how to get the appropriate record. Initially one does a search by Surname. This is done by going to https://www.familysearch.org/ and then clicking on "Africa" then "Zimbabwe" and selecting the top of 2 links given. The lower one takes one to the various town records. Once a name has been found one has to make a note of the various records given. Those starting D.R. are fine and refer to either a volume number and record number or a record number of a year. The ones listed with the following abbreviations are causing some confusion and I am hoping you will be able to enlighten us as to the meanings of these records and how we can trace the DN (death notice) from the value given against the name: LW nnnn A.I.M. nnn K.B. nnn G.F. nnn A.D.M. nnn MISC nnn where nnn is some number but does not seem to be related to the records in the same way as the D.R. nnn is. Hoping you can be of assistance to us and thank you for making these valuable records available to us. regards Peter Whitfield ---------- From: Pete Whitfield <pelejab@gmail.com> Date: 9 April 2011 12:33 To: nat.archives@gta.gov.zw Dear Madam Sir further to my previous query on your records I have an additional one regarding "Masters Miscellaneous Estates" where some 30 to 40 names are given with an additional digit but there is no further information. An example : Suppose I am looking for Agnes BENNETT. In the Index Surnames A-B on image 44/52 I find her name listed with the following reference "D.R. 78/20/31" I then go to the Death Registers and click on Volume 78. On image 4 of 281 I find a hand-written list in alphabetical order (only surnames listed with B's here) and she appears again with the reference 78/20/31 Further on if I go to image 47 of 281 I find a list headed on the right page by "Masters Miscellaneous Estates" record number 20. On the left page is a list from 1 to 40 giving various names plus the DR numbers (78 in column 1, 20 in column 2 and again numbers 1 to 40 in the third column). A few names have a Will number against them but not all and some are listed as closed. The odd one like #34 LANE H.R. has an additional reference "see 78/213" which I found on image 243 of 281. Is there some way I can find the details for the death notices of those people listed on these "Masters Miscellaneous Estates" which seem to be those names that have an additional slash plus number on the DR given ie the /31 for Agnes Bennett above? Your assistance with this will also be greatly appreciated  regards Peter Whitfield