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Archival family tree · South African Tamil roots

Chinnasami Gounden

Mothigudisa, North Arcot

Father
Audi Gounden
Mothigudisa, North Arcot
Indentured ancestor
Chinnasami Gounden
male · Mothigudisa, North Arcot
The crossing
Origin
Mothigudisa
North Arcot
Ship
PONGOLA XL
no. 94284
Year
1902
Arrived
Natal, South Africa
The origin village

Chinnasami Gounden’s family came from Mothigudisa, 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 Chinnasami Gounden or Audi Gounden?
  • Did family ever mention coming from Mothigudisa, 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?
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Is this your ancestor?

Claim this record to start your family tree — Chinnasami Gounden and Audi 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 Mothigudisa

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

Chinnasami Gounden 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.