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Archival family tree · South African Tamil roots

Mottain

Denakulam, Tinnevelly

Father
Sangaralingam
Denakulam, Tinnevelly
Indentured ancestor
Mottain
male · Denakulam, Tinnevelly
The crossing
Origin
Denakulam
Tinnevelly
Ship
UMLAZI XXXI
no. 126275
Year
1875
Arrived
Natal, South Africa
The origin village

Mottain’s family came from Denakulam, 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 Mottain or Sangaralingam?
  • Did family ever mention coming from Denakulam, Tinnevelly?
  • Do the dates line up with when your family arrived in Natal? (Record: 1875)
  • Any family memory of a ship named UMLAZI XXXI, or a passage to Natal around then?
Ask elders on WhatsApp
Is this your ancestor?

Claim this record to start your family tree — Mottain and Sangaralingam 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 Denakulam

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

Mottain 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.