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Archival family tree · South African Tamil roots

Shunmoogum Pillay

Vitilapuram, Tinnevelly

Father
Sookalingam Pillay
Vitilapuram, Tinnevelly
Indentured ancestor
Shunmoogum Pillay
male · Vitilapuram, Tinnevelly
The crossing
Origin
Vitilapuram
Tinnevelly
Ship
LAUREL II
no. 33578
Year
1885
Arrived
Natal, South Africa
The origin village

Shunmoogum Pillay’s family came from Vitilapuram, 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 Shunmoogum Pillay or Sookalingam Pillay?
  • Did family ever mention coming from Vitilapuram, Tinnevelly?
  • Do the dates line up with when your family arrived in Natal? (Record: 1885)
  • Any family memory of a ship named LAUREL II, or a passage to Natal around then?
Ask elders on WhatsApp
Is this your ancestor?

Claim this record to start your family tree — Shunmoogum Pillay and Sookalingam 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 Vitilapuram

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

Shunmoogum 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.