The Parental family of Vettathu family is Mookanthottam family at Parappally within the jurisdiction of Kizhaparayar Parish Church. About a kilometer from Palai town along the Palai-Erattupetta road, there is a Kadavu at Moonnani, which is called Mookanthottam Kadavu, and as we cross the Meenachil River we are reaching the Mookanthottam land and house. At present a new house is built near the old foundation. The word Mookanthottam comes from "mukku-thottam" which means the plantation near the bank of the river. The Mookanthottam house and the rubber plantation are on the other bank of the Meenachil River. Joy Mookanthottam (b. 1956) lives in this ancestral house with his wife, Siji Valavanattu, and their two children: Jomari (a girl aged 14) and Joprakash (a boy aged 8), with Joy?s mother Mary Joseph (aged 77). Joy?s father M.T. Joseph or Kunjettan (1913-1994) was a great Christian leader. According to Joy he is the 15th generation of the Mookkanthottam family. Joy has a lot of valuable documents and knowledge within his reach about this great family. Address: Joy Mookenthottam. Kizhaparayar P.O. Palai. Phone: 0482-212848 or 214375. Email: mooken@vsnl.com

How did this Mookkanthottam family arrive here? There are two Namboori Manas on the both sides of this thottam. It is believed that Mookkanthottam members were great fighters, may be of Kshatria clan, and the Nambooris brought them along with them as their security. It is said that they arrived at this place from Nilakkal. To escape from the Pandis who used to rob the Christian community of Nilakkal and take them away as slaves, this family came to Parappally by boat and built a house and a plantation near the bank of this river to be called Mookanthottam, cultivated land on the bank of the river.

If we look into the different documents of the different generations of Mookkanthottam family we can see that if a parent had several sons, only one or two got the original family name as Mookkanthottam and others placed new names for their families or placed the past name of the land which they bought. So in these 15 generations of Mookkanthottam family we can see several family names in the various generations. Thus Vettathu, Kizhakkarakkattu, Areekkattu, Panathanam, Kochuplackal, Kuzhimullil, Theruvappuzha, Vallel, Thattampally, Palathoduka, Edamanappadavil, Keerambanal, Chenbananickal, Varikkamackal etc. are some of the family names originated from Mookkanthottam family. It is said that one of the ancestors used to say that the eldest son had to be sent to Vettathu, and that is the beginning of the Vettathu Family. But in which generation of the Mookkanthottam family this happened, we do not know yet, because all the 15 Mookkanthottam generations are not yet traced properly with all the families came from them. Hopefully we might be able to find that out in the near future. Three ancestral branches of Vettathu family are traced up as coming from Parappalli and Mookanthottam family. The great ancestor in Parappalli seems to be an Ouseph because all the three branches of Vettathu Family have the first son named Ouseph, a tradition among our ancestors and even now that the first son gets the name of the paternal grandfather, and the first daughter gets the name of the paternal grandmother. Then the second son and second daughter get that of maternal grandfather and grandmother. So we can conclude that the great father of the Vettathu Family is OUSEPH.

It is also heard from the forefathers that there were originally 7 brothers in the Vettathu family. But so far we are able to trace out only 3 branches. If it is true that there were 7 brothers in the original Vettathu family, may be the other 4 had new family names. However there are many debates as to our families? direct line, marriage of Ouseph and his ancestor's branch. This is, in the main because of the fact that the early records are incomplete or inconclusive. The 3 branches traced out are the following: Ouseph Vettathu branches, Thomman Vettathu branches, and Ulahannan Vettathu branches. Ouseph and Thomman settled in Edappady in adjacent properties, and Ulahannan settled in Kizhaparayar near Parappalli.