Sources

Signatures and Handwriting

In cases of disputed wills, it is often a struggle to obtain exemplars of the signatures or handwriting of a deceased person. In addition to the family’s own collection of records, here are some ideas of how and where to obtain specimen signatures:

  • Access records to housing complex
  • Accident reports
  • Account books
  • Addresses on envelopes
  • Affidavits
  • Assignments
  • Attendance records
  • Authorisation letters
  • Autograph books
  • Bank deposit authorisations
  • Bank withdrawal slips
  • Bank records
  • Bank signature records
  • Bank safe deposit records
  • Bank deposit slips
  • Bar chits
  • Bible entries
  • Bills of lading
  • Birthday cards
  • Bond application forms and correspondence
  • Business license applications
  • Business agreements
  • Business / corporate paperwork
  • Business correspondence
  • Car rental contracts
  • Change-of-address forms
  • Charity correspondence
  • Cheque book stubs
  • Cheques: business & personal
  • Church records
  • Club records
  • Committee reports
  • Community service records
  • Competition entries
  • Contracts
  • Convention or seminar records
  • Convention registrations
  • Corporate records
  • Corporation papers
  • Council forms: electricity, refuse removal
  • Council housing documents
  • Courier receipts
  • Court records
  • Credit applications
  • Credit card application forms
  • Credit cards
  • Credit card purchases & transaction records
  • Criminal records
  • Currency exchange records
  • Declarations
  • Deeds
  • Delivery receipts
  • Diaries
  • Discharge papers
  • Divorce documents
  • Documents for trading in stocks and shares
  • Driver’s licenses and applications
  • Employment records
  • Employment application forms
  • Employment records
  • Endorsements on cheques
  • Equipment rental contracts
  • Estimates or business quotations
  • Examination papers
  • Financial agreements
  • Financial statements
  • Foreign currency drafts
  • Funeral attendance registers
  • Funeral policies
  • Funeral registers
  • Greeting cards: birthday, get well, Christmas
  • Grocery lists
  • Guardianship papers
  • Guest registers
  • Health cards
  • Holiday rentals
  • Home Affairs forms of all kinds
  • Hospital admission forms and records
  • Hotel and guest house registers
  • ID Card
  • ID Book
  • Inside covers of books
  • Insurance forms
  • Insurance claims
  • Insurance applications, various
  • Inventories
  • Investment accounts
  • Invitations
  • Labels
  • Landlord correspondence
  • Leases
  • Legal process paperwork
  • Letters
  • Library card applications
  • Library records
  • License applications
  • License renewal forms
  • Licenses for leisure activities, eg fishing, hiking trails, hunting
  • Life insurance papers
  • Loan application forms
  • Loan agreements
  • Mail order requests and receipts
  • Manuscripts
  • Marriage license papers
  • Marriage certificates
  • Medical Aid application forms and claims
  • Meeting registers
  • Membership cards
  • Membership application forms
  • Memoranda of all kinds
  • Military records
  • Minutes of meetings, business/leisure clubs
  • Money orders
  • Mortgage documentation
  • Newspaper and magazine subscriptions
  • Occupational writings
  • Parents’ signatures on report cards
  • Passes
  • Pawn tickets
  • Payroll receipts
  • Pension applications
  • Permit application forms
  • Personal correspondence
  • Petitions
  • Pharmacy registers
  • Pharmacy chronic medication registers
  • Photograph albums
  • Political party records
  • Postcards
  • Power of attorney
  • Promissory notes
  • Property damage reports
  • Proxies
  • Receipts
  • Recipes
  • Referendum signatures
  • Registered mail return receipts
  • Releases
  • Rental agreements
  • Reports, executor
  • Reports, credit
  • Retail accounts
  • Sales slips
  • Sassa card
  • Sassa receipts and records
  • Savings account withdrawal slips
  • Sick notes
  • School records
  • Separation agreements
  • Show house register
  • Stock certificates, endorsements on
  • Stokvel vouchers
  • Tax returns
  • Tax records
  • Telephone service applications
  • Time sheets
  • Timeshare contracts
  • Travellers cheques
  • Trustee reports
  • Unemployment Insurance Fund records
  • Union records
  • University application forms & records
  • Vehicle registration papers
  • Vehicle licenses & applications
  • Visitors’ registers
  • Voting registration records
  • Voting records
  • Waivers
  • Warrants
  • Welfare records
  • Wills
  • Withdrawal slips
  • Working papers
  • Workman’s compensation papers