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Archival family tree · South African Tamil roots

Oonamalay

Thamal, Chingleput

Father
Moonean
Thamal, Chingleput
Indentured ancestor
Oonamalay
female · Thamal, Chingleput
The crossing
Origin
Thamal
Chingleput
Ship
SUFFOLK II
no. 16261
Year
1878
Arrived
Natal, South Africa
The origin village

Oonamalay’s family came from Thamal, Chingleput 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 Oonamalay or Moonean?
  • Did family ever mention coming from Thamal, Chingleput?
  • Do the dates line up with when your family arrived in Natal? (Record: 1878)
  • Any family memory of a ship named SUFFOLK II, or a passage to Natal around then?
Ask elders on WhatsApp
Is this your ancestor?

Claim this record to start your family tree — Oonamalay and Moonean 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 Thamal

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

Oonamalay 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.