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Archival family tree · South African Tamil roots

Virasawmi

Chittoor, Madura

Father
Papi Nayak
Chittoor, Madura
Indentured ancestor
Virasawmi
male · Chittoor, Madura
The crossing
Origin
Chittoor
Madura
Ship
LAUREL II
no. 33619
Year
1885
Arrived
Natal, South Africa
The origin village

Virasawmi’s family came from Chittoor, Madura 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 Virasawmi or Papi Nayak?
  • Did family ever mention coming from Chittoor, Madura?
  • Do the dates line up with when your family arrived in Natal? (Record: 1885)
  • Any family memory of a ship named LAUREL II, or a passage to Natal around then?
Ask elders on WhatsApp
Is this your ancestor?

Claim this record to start your family tree — Virasawmi and Papi Nayak 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 Chittoor

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

Virasawmi 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.