Skip to content
Archival family tree · South African Tamil roots

Perumal Pillay

Ponruthi Near Sivaram, Chingleput

Father
Venkatachella Pillay
Ponruthi Near Sivaram, Chingleput
Indentured ancestor
Perumal Pillay
male · Ponruthi Near Sivaram, Chingleput
The crossing
Origin
Ponruthi Near Sivaram
Chingleput
Ship
CONGELLA XLVIII
no. 130881
Year
1877
Arrived
Natal, South Africa
The origin village

Perumal Pillay’s family came from Ponruthi Near Sivaram, 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 Perumal Pillay or Venkatachella Pillay?
  • Did family ever mention coming from Ponruthi Near Sivaram, Chingleput?
  • Do the dates line up with when your family arrived in Natal? (Record: 1877)
  • Any family memory of a ship named CONGELLA XLVIII, or a passage to Natal around then?
Ask elders on WhatsApp
Is this your ancestor?

Claim this record to start your family tree — Perumal Pillay and Venkatachella Pillay 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 Ponruthi Near Sivaram

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

Perumal Pillay 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.