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Archival family tree · South African Tamil roots

Chinnappan

Chinniyur, Coimbatore

Father
Pachi Theven
Chinniyur, Coimbatore
Indentured ancestor
Chinnappan
male · Chinniyur, Coimbatore
The crossing
Origin
Chinniyur
Coimbatore
Ship
JOHN ALLAN
no. 33034
Year
1884
Arrived
Natal, South Africa
The origin village

Chinnappan’s family came from Chinniyur, Coimbatore district. Living relatives may still be there — a voter-roll lookup can name them, and the modern village page shows land records and families we already track.

Verify with your elders

Colonial ship-clerks often mangled Tamil names. Before treating this as your ancestor, ask the oldest person in your family:

  • Was there a great-great-grandfather named Chinnappan or Pachi Theven?
  • Did family ever mention coming from Chinniyur, Coimbatore?
  • Do the dates line up with when your family arrived in Natal? (Record: 1884)
  • Any family memory of a ship named JOHN ALLAN, or a passage to Natal around then?
Ask elders on WhatsApp
Is this your ancestor?

Claim this record to start your family tree — Chinnappan and Pachi Theven are added instantly, ready for you to extend with living relatives.

This is my family — build my tree

Two paths: build your tree if this is your ancestor, or submit evidence to help a South African family verify their village link. See the Village Verification Project.

More families from Chinniyur

Source: theiii.in Natal indenture register (digitised ship record). Names and places are the colonial spellings as recorded; verify against family memory before treating a lineage as certain.

Privacy — no living person’s details are ever shown in public

Chinnappan appears here only because this is a historical indenture record (1860–1911) — the person named sailed over a century ago. Family trees, voter matches and any living-relative data sit behind a login and are visible only to the account owner they belong to.