Kizhanatham Family Tree
This web site is dedicated to our late father, Sri. K. V. Athinatha Iyengar born in 1902. Our father developed an interest in his younger years to trace our family roots and record the information for posterity. In pursuing his interest, he had numerous conversations with several elders from the village to gather data about the siblings of each generation along patriarchal lines. The project covering several decades resulted in massive amounts of data which required careful sorting and cataloging by family. The only tool available to our father at that time was a portable typewriter. He painstakingly checked the validity of the data from more than one source, sorted them out, and developed a comprehensive recording system with cross-referencing features. Until his death in 1996 at age 94, he continued to devote considerable effort to refine the system in order to make it comprehensible to anyone not familiar with our family history. As a result of his labor, we are now able to share the history of our family that spawns twelve generations and stretches back to the 1760s based on available information.
When our father was growing up, the village had no electricity and had only a one-room elementary school (Grades 1 and 2). Upon completion of Grade 2, students had to go to another city (Palayamkottai) located five miles from the village to attend middle and higher school. Since there was no public transportation between the village and the city, students walked each morning and evening under all kinds of weather to attend classes in St. Xavier’s High School (a Jesuit institution).
Following are some photographs of our Grand Parents and my Father during his mid-career with South Indian Railways:
Farthest left is K.V. Vedantham Iyengar, My Father K.V. Athinatha Iyengar, My Mother S.C. Lakshmi Ammal (Standing), My Grandmother Janaki Ammal, My Aunt Kurungadi (standing), My Grandfather K.V. Venkatarama Iyengar and on his lap is my aunt’s son Rajamani, Sitting in the front is my aunt’s daughter Singaram. To the right is my great uncle K.V. Venkatavaradhan. In his lap is his daughter the Padma, his wife, and my Uncle K.V. Nambhi Iyengar.
My Father while he worked in
Southern Railways Sri. K. V.
Athinatha Iyengar
Iyengar and Janaki Ammal
K. V. Athinatha Iyengar and Smt.
S.C. Lakshmi
Although considerable work has been done so far, the family tree project is far from complete. Please feel free to browse among the various branches of the family tree. If you have more information about any of the families or individuals listed or if you would like to offer any additions or corrections to the information presented, please do not hesitate to send me an e-mail.
Excellent Chooda Laudable effort
Thank you so much for your kind words Andal Akka
Such fascinating information! You’ve put so much work into tracing your ancestry. Thank you for sharing!
Thank you for your thoughtful comment Jace.
Andal
A very fascinating read. Many information left me spellbound and makes me feel proud about the legacy which our ancestors have left. Thank you Chithi. Wonderful work.
Thank you so much for your sweet comments Harini.
Love,
Chitthi
This is a great and commendable effort by you. Greater is the effort of your father in compiling a wealth of information by hand and by typewriter and I had the chance to see his hand written notes in his thick note book in Kizhanatham village. I had seen him in the village as well as your uncle Sri Nambi Iyengar in the village during one of the Samprokshanam of the Rukmini Satyabhama samedha Venugopala Swamy Temple in which he had the honour of being the best man. I had also seen your other uncle Sri Venkatavaradhan Iyengar in Perumalpuram who was a mathematics professor at St.Xavier's College. I could trace generations and roots of our family (Gangaikondan) which was also part of the Kizhanatham village and had connections through marriage with the other families Aaraathu, Ettathu vamsams and the vadhyar family of Chakkaram Iyengar vamsam.
So much hard work…is there a way to lookup for KIZHANATHAM Srinivasan founder of Teachers Publishing house TPH…
Hi, can anyone tell me about the temple/s of Kizhanatham? My father in law was from there and i wanted to know our Kula Deivam temple there. I was told that the Deity in kizhanatham temple is our Kula Deivam.
Jayashree Hariharan