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Archival family tree · South African Tamil roots

Kuppammal

Valem, North Arcot

Father
Virasami Naik
Valem, North Arcot
Indentured ancestor
Kuppammal
female · Valem, North Arcot
The crossing
Origin
Valem
North Arcot
Ship
PONGOLA XXXVIII
no. 89672
Year
1901
Arrived
Natal, South Africa
The origin village

Kuppammal’s family came from Valem, North Arcot 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 Kuppammal or Virasami Naik?
  • Did family ever mention coming from Valem, North Arcot?
  • Do the dates line up with when your family arrived in Natal? (Record: 1901)
  • Any family memory of a ship named PONGOLA XXXVIII, or a passage to Natal around then?
Ask elders on WhatsApp
Is this your ancestor?

Claim this record to start your family tree — Kuppammal and Virasami Naik 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 Valem

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

Kuppammal 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.