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Archival family tree · South African Tamil roots

Balakrishtna Pillai

Polur, North Arcot

Father
Muthusami Pillai
Polur, North Arcot
Indentured ancestor
Balakrishtna Pillai
male · Polur, North Arcot
The crossing
Origin
Polur
North Arcot
Ship
PONGOLA XXVIII
no. 73010
Year
1898
Arrived
Natal, South Africa
The origin village

Balakrishtna Pillai’s family came from Polur, 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 Balakrishtna Pillai or Muthusami Pillai?
  • Did family ever mention coming from Polur, North Arcot?
  • Do the dates line up with when your family arrived in Natal? (Record: 1898)
  • Any family memory of a ship named PONGOLA XXVIII, or a passage to Natal around then?
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Is this your ancestor?

Claim this record to start your family tree — Balakrishtna Pillai and Muthusami Pillai 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 Polur

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

Balakrishtna Pillai 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.