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Archival family tree · South African Tamil roots

Poothi Kamm Pillai

Vandanam, Tinnevelly

Father
Murugappa Pillai
Vandanam, Tinnevelly
Indentured ancestor
Poothi Kamm Pillai
male · Vandanam, Tinnevelly
The crossing
Origin
Vandanam
Tinnevelly
Ship
UMKUZI XXI
no. 115742
Year
1860
Arrived
Natal, South Africa
The origin village

Poothi Kamm Pillai’s family came from Vandanam, 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 Poothi Kamm Pillai or Murugappa Pillai?
  • Did family ever mention coming from Vandanam, Tinnevelly?
  • Do the dates line up with when your family arrived in Natal? (Record: 1860)
  • Any family memory of a ship named UMKUZI XXI, or a passage to Natal around then?
Ask elders on WhatsApp
Is this your ancestor?

Claim this record to start your family tree — Poothi Kamm Pillai and Murugappa 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 Vandanam

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

Poothi Kamm 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.