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Archival family tree · South African Tamil roots

Sellen

Senthangalam, Chingleput

Father
Thopulan Naiken
Senthangalam, Chingleput
Indentured ancestor
Sellen
male · Senthangalam, Chingleput
The crossing
Origin
Senthangalam
Chingleput
Ship
UMFULI IV
no. 125493
Year
Arrived
Natal, South Africa
The origin village

Sellen’s family came from Senthangalam, Chingleput 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 Sellen or Thopulan Naiken?
  • Did family ever mention coming from Senthangalam, Chingleput?
  • Any family memory of a ship named UMFULI IV, or a passage to Natal around then?
Ask elders on WhatsApp
Is this your ancestor?

Claim this record to start your family tree — Sellen and Thopulan Naiken 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 Senthangalam

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

Sellen 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.