I am at crossroads .. I have been trying to read up on various things that could potentially help me understand where my ancient ancestors belonged to , who they were , what religion they followed.
But I am confused because I really dont know where to start from , I know where my grandparents were from back in India .. but dont know anymore then that. Some people said , you find out more about your caste and then you try to speak to people and find out where people of that caste come from .. like in my case its “Araai” , I have heard the roots go to Iranian heritage then some claimed that all Araai’s used to be hindu so their roots will be more in the subcontinent ..
Has anyone gone down their heritage journey? what kind of leads did you follow? other then the obvious ones, like asking the immediate family etc ..
btw… there is a lot of hotchpotch and trickery involved in tracing your true heritage if you are paki punjabi. People have some sort of affliction that they want to be called ‘arabs’ or ‘original’ muslims. You will find that most castes, except rajpoot and jatts, somehow try create a connection with ‘arab’ ancestors,either thru muhammbad bin qasim or the persian route.
My guess (no basis what so ever) is that most people are basically locals.
I’m arraein myself and my grandparents always told us our roots going back to Iran.
My mom’s first cousin has been working on this project for years. He even travelled to turkey/Iran for this. I’ll be seeing him in a few months, will definitely know more about it.
pwner, yes , that was a strong guess , how did you know?
Royal Gala, can you keep me posted of what he finds out please? I am really really keen but not getting anywhere with this whole thing. Also if you can find out what kind of leads he used? I do feel that caste may not be the only route to finding heritage , what say?
My ancestors were from Jagrawan, Punjab, India.A female family member once tried to trace our roots and from her I found our great grand ancestors were Turkish.
get a male member to do a national geographic type DNA test as one part of the puzzle.
My family kept very detailed records so its not hard to trace the heritage on my dad’s side, mums side was not quite as elaborate but gives good info, its good to know i guess.
I have done DNA testing and (surprise, surprise) my family origins are from Mohmand territories of Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Up until my Grandfather, my family was of poor origins, who barely visited Pekhawar, Kabul forget internationally. One really amazing aspect is that most of my ancestors are buried in a ramshackle graveyard. I can trace it all the way back to my great-great-great grandfather. One day I will also join them in that same graveyard. It might not mean much to others but its important to me, to lie next to my forefathers.
pak one, i think there is something special about it. For me it is next to impossible because my ancestors starting from my great grandfather and going back 8-9 generations are buried across the border in the same graveyard an I have not had a chance to even visit. but that is a journey I want to make to not only go their gravesites but visit the institutions that they built.
This is so interesting! I would love to find out more details about my history too. My husbands family can be traced to Iraq and an attempt was made to try and find a missing brother of my husbands grandmother but there were no proper records and they couldn’t find him. My Mamus did one year travel to India for the first tine, for my cousins wedding stuff and took the family to where my grandfather used to live. Someone actually recognized my uncles as my grand fathers sons, a really old man in the area, it was beautiful. I never had an interest then but my uncle has the family shajra from my moms side, maybe I will ask for a copy when I have some time to look deeper into it. I would also like to know ways about doing some research on this stuff. I have been curious about ancestory.com and if it would apply or work for us haha.
I will ask my grandfather next time I see him. My grandfather has told me a lot about Arrians but my Urdu is not that good so I really never understood much. There was a book written about Arrians my grandfather told me that you will find a lot of information on.
I remember my grandfather telling me that there are subcasts within Arrians. Something happened a long time ago which meant some moved to Baluchistan etc (I can’t remember much though).
In sha Allah I am going Pakistan soon and will get more information for you. I have also been interested in finding my family information. It would be good if people here go together and shared information
