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Archival family tree · South African Tamil roots

Puthiaven

Srivilliputtur, Tinnevelly

Father
Arumugam Pillai
Srivilliputtur, Tinnevelly
Indentured ancestor
Puthiaven
male · Srivilliputtur, Tinnevelly
The crossing
Origin
Srivilliputtur
Tinnevelly
Ship
UMVOTI XVII
no. 34858
Year
1886
Arrived
Natal, South Africa
The origin village

Puthiaven’s family came from Srivilliputtur, 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 Puthiaven or Arumugam Pillai?
  • Did family ever mention coming from Srivilliputtur, Tinnevelly?
  • Do the dates line up with when your family arrived in Natal? (Record: 1886)
  • Any family memory of a ship named UMVOTI XVII, or a passage to Natal around then?
Ask elders on WhatsApp
Is this your ancestor?

Claim this record to start your family tree — Puthiaven and Arumugam 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 Srivilliputtur

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

Puthiaven 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.