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Archival family tree · South African Tamil roots

Ellappen

Sodanodai, South Arcot

Father
Mothaya Gounden
Sodanodai, South Arcot
Indentured ancestor
Ellappen
male · Sodanodai, South Arcot
The crossing
Origin
Sodanodai
South Arcot
Ship
PONGOLA XI
no. 51178
Year
1892
Arrived
Natal, South Africa
The origin village

Ellappen’s family came from Sodanodai, South 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 Ellappen or Mothaya Gounden?
  • Did family ever mention coming from Sodanodai, South Arcot?
  • Do the dates line up with when your family arrived in Natal? (Record: 1892)
  • Any family memory of a ship named PONGOLA XI, or a passage to Natal around then?
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Is this your ancestor?

Claim this record to start your family tree — Ellappen and Mothaya 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 Sodanodai

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

Ellappen 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.