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Archival family tree · South African Tamil roots

Royappen

Tinnevelly, Tinnevelly

Father
Chinnasamy
Tinnevelly, Tinnevelly
Indentured ancestor
Royappen
male · Tinnevelly, Tinnevelly
The crossing
Origin
Tinnevelly
Tinnevelly
Ship
VIMEIRA II
no. 21575
Year
1879
Arrived
Natal, South Africa
The origin village

Royappen’s family came from Tinnevelly, 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 Royappen or Chinnasamy?
  • Did family ever mention coming from Tinnevelly, Tinnevelly?
  • Do the dates line up with when your family arrived in Natal? (Record: 1879)
  • Any family memory of a ship named VIMEIRA II, or a passage to Natal around then?
Ask elders on WhatsApp
Is this your ancestor?

Claim this record to start your family tree — Royappen and Chinnasamy 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 Tinnevelly

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

Royappen 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.