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Archival family tree · South African Tamil roots

Perumasami Pillay

Sathamalli, Tinnevelly

Father
Kanthinada Pillay
Sathamalli, Tinnevelly
Indentured ancestor
Perumasami Pillay
male · Sathamalli, Tinnevelly
The crossing
Origin
Sathamalli
Tinnevelly
Ship
PONGOLA XVI
no. 55817
Year
1894
Arrived
Natal, South Africa
The origin village

Perumasami Pillay’s family came from Sathamalli, Tinnevelly 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 Perumasami Pillay or Kanthinada Pillay?
  • Did family ever mention coming from Sathamalli, Tinnevelly?
  • Do the dates line up with when your family arrived in Natal? (Record: 1894)
  • Any family memory of a ship named PONGOLA XVI, or a passage to Natal around then?
Ask elders on WhatsApp
Is this your ancestor?

Claim this record to start your family tree — Perumasami Pillay and Kanthinada 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 Sathamalli

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

Perumasami 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.