Cornelius Family Website

Passing away of Devanesan Devasundram (formerly assistant Chief Sub-Editor at the STAR)Aged 57 years. He was the Webmaster for this Heritage website. A loving man, full of zest, embraced death as a celebration on 26-11-2011. He will be sadly missed and forever remembered.The family would love the presence of all friends and family at the wake, on 28-11-2011, at 8pm. to be held at 17, Jalan KLLN5, Taman Koperatif LLN, Kajang.followed by the funeral service at 29-11-2011 at 11.30am. at Zion church, Brickfields.The remains of our beloved father, brother, cousin, colleague, friend will then be cremated at Cheras Crematorium at 1.30pm on 29-11-2011.For further details please contact:Reuben (son) at 016-6458264Renuka (daughter) at 017-3693612Kindly treat this as a personal invitation from the family. ------------------------------------------- ---------------------------   Passing away of Esther Balasundram Esther Balasundram, 86, passed away peacefully today (June 20, 2011) at 11.30am at her residence at No. 7 Lorong Endah Lima, Brown Garden, Penang.Funeral at 3pm tomorrow (June 21) at her residence and thence to the Chruch of the Good Shephard, Jalan Terusahaan Jelutong 3 and burial at Western Road cemetery in Penang.Contact her son John at 04-658 0357 or 016-472 6280, her daughter Anna Ruby at 013-584 7217 or grand daughter Janet at 016- 472 6270. May she and her family members be blessed.     HERITAGE 2010 THEME SONGMusic by Vanessa Moses & Francis Cobb, Lyrics by Vanessa Moses (c) April 2010The greatness of our family growingMeeting each other, feeling the love in all theMagic in this one occasion...Coming from so many placesSmiling at so many faces Bonded in our hearts forever as ONE BIG FAMILY!Chorus:Let's now cherish every moment Build the treasures we've forsakenBless our children's childrenWith the love that gave us a family that spreads across this landLet's now join our hands together Make this last forever...Embracing the lives of our Father's fatherGrasping the touch of our Mother's mother Now start living our future so much greaterA Heritage that'll carry on This day sets forth a magical turn A legacy that'll live in our EmotionChorus:Let us cherish every moment Build the treasures we've forsakenBless our children's childrenWith the love that gave us a family that spreads across this land...Let's now join our hands togetherMake this last forever ...(Scatting and raga after chorus during the bridge instrumentation)Chorus:Let us cherish every moment Build the treasures we've forsakenBless our children's childrenWith the love that gave us a family that spreads across this land... Let's now join our hands togetherMake this last forever... (Whisper) HERITAGE 2010!!Vocals & instrumentation by Vanessa Moses, Joshua Ninan Oommen & Francis Cobb (copyright) Hello there My name is Devanesan Cornelius and I am the Webmaster of this site.The photo on the right was obtained from Dr Donald Gnanaraj (the son of Amani Rodgers and Gnanaraj) during my visit to their home in Thiruvannamalai in Tamil Nadu, India, in March 2009. It shows most of the Rodgers family members in Chennai (Madras) at that time. The year the picture was taken is not known. A number of those in the picture still reside in Chennai and other parts of Tamil Nadu. The others (older ones) have passed on. More of the Rodgers photos can be seen by clicking the photos button on top and viewed under the Rodgers family album.The photo on the left was taken on January 31, 2009, at Cheras cemetery in Kuala Lumpur. It is part of the monument built at the resting place of our matriach Manonmoney (yes, that's the way her name is spelt on the monument). She is the wife of our patriach Cornelius. You can read more about it in the article I posted at the bottom of this page. Please give your comments. More photos can be viewed at Photos and Videos under Albums in this website.You may or may not know me. I was inspired to start this website by a man named Peter Moses. He contacted me in the middle of 2008 saying he is my long-lost cousin. I met him and discovered that I have a vast extended family that I never knew existed. This is exciting. To get to know people who are closely related and yet have remained as strangers.Peter said he was on a mission to contact the decendents of a man named Cornelius (who is the great grandfather of both Peter and me), and have a reunion of all the family members in Penang in 2010.We hope to achieve this with the help of this website.If your name is on the Family tree on this website, you are somehow connected to this man Cornelius and his wife Manomani, and to everyone else on this website.I think there are only a few people alive today who have met this couple from Thanjavur, in Tamil Nadu, India.We are trying to compile as much information as possible about the family members so that it will be available to all, and all can stay in touch in this modern world where we may be sitting next to a relative and not be aware about our ties.This happened to me. On discovering that I was working as a journalist at The Star, Peter told me that his nieces Esther and Sheela Chandran were at The Star as well. And, guess what, Ester sits just two paces away from me. I've known her and Sheela in all my 14 years at The Star without knowing that they are my nieces.This could happen to you as well. You can make changes in your life, develop family ties and know that we have a really big family out there.You can help by providing whatever information you have to update this website, especially in regard to full names, dates of births and deaths, photos and whatever background information you have which you wish to share.Please also share your emails with me and I will invite you to become members of this website so that you can make updates, add photos and include all the relevant information you want to share. My email address is devanesan@yahoo.com. If you are a family member but not yet a member of this website, you can only view it and not make updates. So, contact me so that I can invite you to become a member of this website.When you enter the Family Tree section of this website, you may first see only my immediate family. Navigate your way to find our ancestors Cornelius and Manomani and click your mouse on the leaf on their name boxes. You will then be able to see the whole extended Family Tree.Some of you (including me) will find that your names have the surname Cornelius. This is because this MyHeritage system automatically gives the surname based on the surname I've given to my great grandfather Cornelius. We believe his surname is actually Pillai, but we've decided to use Cornelius in recognition of him as a forefather.If you find your name with the surname Cornelius and want this changed to whatever name you've adopted, do inform me, or if you're a member, you can make the change yourself.This problem arises because most of us as a family with Tamil origins have no surnames but are legally required to link our father's names to our names to indicate our lineage (eg. Devanesan a/l Devasundram).I think we all understand this and have lived with it and it is of no problem to us. Some have started to adopt surnames while others have married into families which have surnames and have adopted those surnames. Still others may decide to start adopting surnames. I believe there is no advantage or disadvantage in this. It just depends on what you want to be known and remembered as.I, for one, have decided to experiment with the surname Cornelius and see how it goes. Legally, my name has my father's name (Devasundram) linked to it. This is just part of the fun.Do feel free to contact me or Peter at peteg9382@yahoo.com if you need any information or help in regard to the family and this website.The information on this website is available mostly because of the research done by the caring and inquisitive gentleman Peter Moses. May he be blessed. We will be adding more to this website every chance that we get, and we need all your help to make the Cornelius family reunion possible in Penang in 2010.This site was created using MyHeritage.com. This is a great system that allows anyone like you and me to create a site for their family and even publish their family tree on the Internet.If you have any comments or feedback about this site, please click here to contact me.May the blessings be.