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What is STAIRS?

STAIRS or NAAIRS, as it is now known, is the index of all documents housed in the South African archives. When requesting a keyword STAIRS search from the archives (see ADDRESSES section for email addresses) you recieve a floppy/stiffy with a list of ALL documents containing that word. This list contains reference numbers, etc for looking up the complete document at a specific archive repository.  The South African archives are presently working on a database system which they hope to put on the internet in the near future. 

Please note that the SA Stamouers site has an index of NAAIRS files for which volunteers are willing to do look-ups. Not all the files are included in my search engine. The files included are listed at the bottom of the search engine page.

Below is an example of a STAIRS look-up (from the Archives) for the surname FIFE:

ÃI0613 * KAB194210178 Document= 6 of 174.
ÃDOCNR KAB194210178
ÃBATCH NO 816170056000
ÃDEPOT KAB
ÃSOURCE 1/KNT
ÃTYPE LEER
ÃVOLUME NO 106
ÃSYSTEM 02
ÃREFERENCE N1/4/3/2/30
ÃPART 1
ÃDESCRIPTION
à NATIVE ESTATES. ESTATES. FIFE.
ÃSTARTING 1929
ÃENDING 1930
ÃREMARKS OLD NO 2/9/3/2.
ÃI0613 * KAB194278593 Document= 7 of 174.
ÃDOCNR KAB194278593
ÃBATCH NO 819650073000
ÃDEPOT KAB
ÃSOURCE 1/SSW
ÃTYPE LEER
ÃVOLUME NO 24
ÃSYSTEM 02
ÃREFERENCE 32/4/3/336
ÃPART 1
ÃDESCRIPTION
à EX-SOLDIERS REHABILITATION. FIFE, AH. PO BOX 1261, CAPE TOWN.
ÃSTARTING 1951
ÃENDING 1953
ÃI0613 * KAB194338731 Document= 8 of 174.
ÃDOCNR KAB194338731
ÃBATCH NO 239400590000
ÃDEPOT KAB
ÃSOURCE 3/CT
ÃTYPE LEER
ÃVOLUME NO 4/2/1/3/95
ÃSYSTEM 01
ÃREFERENCE B5065
ÃPART 1
ÃDESCRIPTION
à PLANS OF PROPOSED RESIDENCE, FIFE ROAD, NEWLANDS.
ÃSTARTING 1921
ÃENDING 1921
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A very useful program was written by a member of the South African Genealogy list to search these STAIRS files.
You can download a version here or contact Barry Kruger for the latest version of the program.

 Last updated: 31 ottobre 2000

 

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