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Archival family tree · South African Tamil roots

Samuel

Nilgiri Hills, The Nilgiris

Father
Savoothian
Nilgiri Hills, The Nilgiris
Indentured ancestor
Samuel
male · Nilgiri Hills, The Nilgiris
The crossing
Origin
Nilgiri Hills
The Nilgiris
Ship
ZENOBIA
no. 20396
Year
1878
Arrived
Natal, South Africa
The origin village

Samuel’s family came from Nilgiri Hills, The Nilgiris 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 Samuel or Savoothian?
  • Did family ever mention coming from Nilgiri Hills, The Nilgiris?
  • Do the dates line up with when your family arrived in Natal? (Record: 1878)
  • Any family memory of a ship named ZENOBIA, or a passage to Natal around then?
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Is this your ancestor?

Claim this record to start your family tree — Samuel and Savoothian 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 Nilgiri Hills

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

Samuel 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.