To The Ends Of Google Earth

Growing up, Saroo Brierly regularly had flashes and memories about where he came from. But it wasn’t until he discovered a computer application that he was able to reunite with a family that never forgot about him.

Saroo Munshi Khan fell asleep on a train when he was five years old, waiting for a brother he did not know had been killed on those same train tracks. In a country of nearly 1 billion people, in its most bustling metropolis, Indian authorities couldn’t find Saroo’s family, and he was taken into state care before eventually being adopted by an Australian couple. Now Saroo Brierly, he regularly had flashes and memories about where he came from growing up, but could never piece together a return to his roots. Two decades later, he discovered Google Maps and Google Earth. Using the application, Saroo traced every train route out of the Calcutta train station where he was found until he eventually saw a familiar station and town. When the grown man walked back to his childhood home, the reunion with a family that never forgot him was remarkable.

Saroo’s isn’t the only amazing story of adoption and reunion spanning time. Check out the father and daughter reunited at a Phoenix homeless shelter!

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