Google Earth Reunites Man with Long-Lost Family After 25-Year Search

Saroo Brierley's journey back to his childhood home in India was an extraordinary one. At five years old, he fell asleep on a train and woke up alone in Kolkata, thousands of kilometers from home. This event would change his life forever.

Twenty-three years later, Saroo began using Google Earth to try and find the place where he grew up. He had no address or telephone number, but he remembered scattered images from his childhood: a railway station, a bridge, an industrial tank, a fountain, and a river flowing over a dam.

Using these memories as a guide, Saroo narrowed down the search area to the city of Kolkata and began looking at railway lines and towns within it. He spent hours poring over satellite maps, sometimes working into the early morning hours.

In 2012, after months of searching, Saroo finally found what he was looking for: a combination of landmarks that triggered a powerful memory. The town was Burhanpur, where he believed he had been separated from his older brother.