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Archival family tree · South African Tamil roots

Boduka Pillay

Arimbakam, Chingleput

Father
Chella Pillay
Arimbakam, Chingleput
Indentured ancestor
Boduka Pillay
male · Arimbakam, Chingleput
The crossing
Origin
Arimbakam
Chingleput
Ship
UMFULI I
no. 116331
Year
1860
Arrived
Natal, South Africa
The origin village

Boduka Pillay’s family came from Arimbakam, Chingleput 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 Boduka Pillay or Chella Pillay?
  • Did family ever mention coming from Arimbakam, Chingleput?
  • Do the dates line up with when your family arrived in Natal? (Record: 1860)
  • Any family memory of a ship named UMFULI I, or a passage to Natal around then?
Ask elders on WhatsApp
Is this your ancestor?

Claim this record to start your family tree — Boduka Pillay and Chella Pillay 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 Arimbakam

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

Boduka Pillay 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.