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Archival family tree · South African Tamil roots

Ellamma

Sembedu, North Arcot

Father
Venkatrama Gounden
Sembedu, North Arcot
Indentured ancestor
Ellamma
female · Sembedu, North Arcot
The crossing
Origin
Sembedu
North Arcot
Ship
PONGOLA XL
no. 94323
Year
1902
Arrived
Natal, South Africa
The origin village

Ellamma’s family came from Sembedu, North Arcot 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 Ellamma or Venkatrama Gounden?
  • Did family ever mention coming from Sembedu, North Arcot?
  • Do the dates line up with when your family arrived in Natal? (Record: 1902)
  • Any family memory of a ship named PONGOLA XL, or a passage to Natal around then?
Ask elders on WhatsApp
Is this your ancestor?

Claim this record to start your family tree — Ellamma and Venkatrama 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 Sembedu

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

Ellamma 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.