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Archival family tree · South African Tamil roots

Pachia Gownden

Kamalapuram, Salem

Father
Pachiappan
Kamalapuram, Salem
Indentured ancestor
Pachia Gownden
male · Kamalapuram, Salem
The crossing
Origin
Kamalapuram
Salem
Ship
UMLAZI XXX
no. 124632
Year
1874
Arrived
Natal, South Africa
The origin village

Pachia Gownden’s family came from Kamalapuram, Salem 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 Pachia Gownden or Pachiappan?
  • Did family ever mention coming from Kamalapuram, Salem?
  • Do the dates line up with when your family arrived in Natal? (Record: 1874)
  • Any family memory of a ship named UMLAZI XXX, or a passage to Natal around then?
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Is this your ancestor?

Claim this record to start your family tree — Pachia Gownden and Pachiappan 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 Kamalapuram

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

Pachia Gownden 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.