A Cultural Advantage Thanush grew up in a Hindu family, and looking back, he thinks that gave him a head start in genealogy without him even realizing it. Death anniversaries were a regular part of life — ancestors honored, photos up on the wall with dates underneath, stories told and retold. He knew his grandparents' faces, knew their stories. "They are now with the gods; they are gods themselves, and we revere them as gods," he says. When he eventually got into genealogy, none of it felt...

Karen shares her miraculous story of finding 11 generations and gives us hints for our own work Pic of my dad and all his siblings circ. 1938. My father is seated on ground on right. My uncle (seated left on ground with turban) is still living in Vancouver. I was raised in California to two parents who immigrated from Punjab. Father in 1956, Mother in 1971. Went to a genealogy "help" day at a local community center in 2014. There I found access to Ancestry.com immigration records and...

Reculturing my roots: From Australia to Punjab Deep in thought during a seminar on the White Australia Policy for a master’s-level subject on Genocidal Thought in 2011, I interrupted the professor: “Wait, how did Nan’s dad get in then?” The close-knit class traded brief, confused looks. I mumbled, “I’m, well… my Nan was Indian, and, uh, it didn’t occur to me until now that my family would have been caught up in all this.” How did my ancestors get around Australia’s immigration restrictions? I...