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Archival family tree · South African Tamil roots

Thomas Pillay

Mudalur, Tinnevelly

Father
Samcevalu
Mudalur, Tinnevelly
Indentured ancestor
Thomas Pillay
male · Mudalur, Tinnevelly
The crossing
Origin
Mudalur
Tinnevelly
Ship
UMVOTI XXIII
no. 38216
Year
1889
Arrived
Natal, South Africa
The origin village

Thomas Pillay’s family came from Mudalur, 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 Thomas Pillay or Samcevalu?
  • Did family ever mention coming from Mudalur, Tinnevelly?
  • Do the dates line up with when your family arrived in Natal? (Record: 1889)
  • Any family memory of a ship named UMVOTI XXIII, or a passage to Natal around then?
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Is this your ancestor?

Claim this record to start your family tree — Thomas Pillay and Samcevalu 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 Mudalur

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

Thomas 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.