Hi Rod, This is very common within our DHA. I am a marriage officer and do sometimes find that I have to "divorce" someone before I can marry them (those who had brought me their final decree of divorce). This process is supposed to be a simple one for death. The DHA issues a Death Certificate to the undertaker or the relatives of the deceased on the day that it is registered (they have to be informed of the event, otherwise they are not able to issue a Death Certificate). This they are supposed to send through to Pretoria (which should work via the computer system, but often does not). It is frustrating when this occurs I know. And it's a very simple process for them to just log on when you produce the required documents (right there in your presence) and change it. On the issue of getting married again, you just need to produce the Death Certificate to the marriage officer and if he does pick up the problem with DHA, he can easily have it rectified without much issues. You can check your marital status online by filling in your id no: http://www.home-affairs.gov.za/marital_status.asp I hope this helps. Tried to condense it as much as possible to give the explanation. Kind regards / Mit freundlichen Grüßen, Walter RENZE (Researching RENZE (all derivatives) ; NUCLEY / NUCLY / LUKLIE ; FROST ; HAHN ; CHATFIELD ; NAINSOEK ; PANDAY ; DANIELS ; HENDRICKS; OWNHOUSE ; UREN ; SIMON ; SAULS ; NICHOLSON ; CALVERT ; BROPHY ; DIEDERICKS now including BAGGET ; LYNCH) "To forget one's ancestors is to be a brook without a source, a tree without a root." Chinese Proverb "Don't forget those who have gone before, in whose footsteps you now tread" Walter RENZE (2012) "Good Morning to all from an extremely windy Cape Town. In the course of applying for a new ID book, which I involuntarilly donated to two unemployed and destitute young men together with my brief case, I found out a rather alarming bit of information from the Dept of Home Affairs. As my wife had passed away in 2004 I naturally crossed the block "widower" but when I handed the form in at the counter the official told me that according to their records I was still married and I had to inform them of my wife's death and bring a copy of the death certificate. Should I not do this it could delay the processeing of my estate and any inheritances by up to 5 years? I checked our marriage certificate and saw that only our dates of birth were entered and not our full identity number, so I will have to pay them another visit. I wonder if this would cause a problem if I wanted to get married again? Has any lister come across this problem before and can one check on their web site the status of a person? Any information would be most helpful to all. Regards, Rod g" Volkswagen Group South Africa (Pty) Ltd. (Reg No. 1946/023458/07) Chairman: H Waltl* Managing Director: D Powels Directors: M Glendinning (Sales & Marketing), C Stapel* (Finance), S Macozoma, PJ Smith (Human Resources), N Maliza (Corporate and Government Affairs), T du Plessis (Production), C Klingler** German*, Austrian** Volkswagen Group South Africa is a Level 4 Contributor in terms of the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Act DISCLAIMER : Volkswagen Group South Africa (Pty) Ltd Any views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender. No liability shall attach whatsoever to Volkswagen Group SA from this communication except where the sender is acting on specific authority of Volkswagen Group SA, such authority being public record and acknowledged by Volkswagen Group SA by nature of the employee's functions. This document may in no way be photocopied, printed, scanned or electronically duplicated for any purposes other than that for which it was originally intended. If you are not the intended recipient of this communication, please discard this message and notify Volkswagen Group SA immediately at postmaster@vwsa.co.za Volkswagen Group SA's anonymous toll free ethics number is: 0800 11 53 54