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Archival family tree · South African Tamil roots

Palani Vellapa Gounden

Kanjikoil, Coimbatore

Father
Marutta Gounden
Kanjikoil, Coimbatore
Indentured ancestor
Palani Vellapa Gounden
female · Kanjikoil, Coimbatore
The crossing
Origin
Kanjikoil
Coimbatore
Ship
UMVOTI XV
no. 34010
Year
1885
Arrived
Natal, South Africa
The origin village

Palani Vellapa Gounden’s family came from Kanjikoil, Coimbatore 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 Palani Vellapa Gounden or Marutta Gounden?
  • Did family ever mention coming from Kanjikoil, Coimbatore?
  • Do the dates line up with when your family arrived in Natal? (Record: 1885)
  • Any family memory of a ship named UMVOTI XV, or a passage to Natal around then?
Ask elders on WhatsApp
Is this your ancestor?

Claim this record to start your family tree — Palani Vellapa Gounden and Marutta Gounden 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 Kanjikoil

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

Palani Vellapa Gounden 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.