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Archival family tree · South African Tamil roots

Vijiyarayana Pillay

Chitty Thanvam, North Arcot

Father
Raja Pillay
Chitty Thanvam, North Arcot
Indentured ancestor
Vijiyarayana Pillay
male · Chitty Thanvam, North Arcot
The crossing
Origin
Chitty Thanvam
North Arcot
Ship
CONGELLA XXI
no. 61397
Year
1896
Arrived
Natal, South Africa
The origin village

Vijiyarayana Pillay’s family came from Chitty Thanvam, 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 Vijiyarayana Pillay or Raja Pillay?
  • Did family ever mention coming from Chitty Thanvam, North Arcot?
  • Do the dates line up with when your family arrived in Natal? (Record: 1896)
  • Any family memory of a ship named CONGELLA XXI, or a passage to Natal around then?
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Is this your ancestor?

Claim this record to start your family tree — Vijiyarayana Pillay and Raja 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 Chitty Thanvam

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

Vijiyarayana 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.