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Archival family tree · South African Tamil roots

Ponnappa Gounden

Vaniyambady, Salem

Father
Chinniah Gounden
Vaniyambady, Salem
Indentured ancestor
Ponnappa Gounden
male · Vaniyambady, Salem
The crossing
Origin
Vaniyambady
Salem
Ship
UMZINTO XXVII
no. 93647
Year
1902
Arrived
Natal, South Africa
The origin village

Ponnappa Gounden’s family came from Vaniyambady, Salem 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 Ponnappa Gounden or Chinniah Gounden?
  • Did family ever mention coming from Vaniyambady, Salem?
  • Do the dates line up with when your family arrived in Natal? (Record: 1902)
  • Any family memory of a ship named UMZINTO XXVII, or a passage to Natal around then?
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Is this your ancestor?

Claim this record to start your family tree — Ponnappa Gounden and Chinniah 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 Vaniyambady

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

Ponnappa 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.