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Archival family tree · South African Tamil roots

Ponnan

Pandur, Chingleput

Father
Chithiran
Pandur, Chingleput
Indentured ancestor
Ponnan
male · Pandur, Chingleput
The crossing
Origin
Pandur
Chingleput
Ship
UMZINTO XLIV
no. 132396
Year
1878
Arrived
Natal, South Africa
The origin village

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

Claim this record to start your family tree — Ponnan and Chithiran 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 Pandur

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

Ponnan 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.