Skip to content
Archival family tree · South African Tamil roots

Kathiraye

Amurayapuram, Tanjore

Father
Maruthan
Amurayapuram, Tanjore
Indentured ancestor
Kathiraye
female · Amurayapuram, Tanjore
The crossing
Origin
Amurayapuram
Tanjore
Ship
PONGOLA XLIX
no. 107771
Year
1904
Arrived
Natal, South Africa
The origin village

Kathiraye’s family came from Amurayapuram, Tanjore 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 Kathiraye or Maruthan?
  • Did family ever mention coming from Amurayapuram, Tanjore?
  • Do the dates line up with when your family arrived in Natal? (Record: 1904)
  • Any family memory of a ship named PONGOLA XLIX, or a passage to Natal around then?
Ask elders on WhatsApp
Is this your ancestor?

Claim this record to start your family tree — Kathiraye and Maruthan 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 Amurayapuram

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

Kathiraye 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.