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Archival family tree · South African Tamil roots

Sundram Pillai

Sathur, Madura

Father
Sudalamuthu Pillai
Sathur, Madura
Indentured ancestor
Sundram Pillai
male · Sathur, Madura
The crossing
Origin
Sathur
Madura
Ship
UMVOTI XV
no. 33973
Year
1885
Arrived
Natal, South Africa
The origin village

Sundram Pillai’s family came from Sathur, Madura 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 Sundram Pillai or Sudalamuthu Pillai?
  • Did family ever mention coming from Sathur, Madura?
  • Do the dates line up with when your family arrived in Natal? (Record: 1885)
  • Any family memory of a ship named UMVOTI XV, or a passage to Natal around then?
Ask elders on WhatsApp
Is this your ancestor?

Claim this record to start your family tree — Sundram Pillai and Sudalamuthu 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 Sathur

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

Sundram Pillai 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.