Gaddi and biswa: the seat that chooses its heir
When a holding had no son, it adopted one - and the heir took the holding's surname, not the other way round. A little-documented village custom, written down; with a note on the biswa scale.
Articles
Research notes, method, and pieces on the community as it is now rather than as it was.
Filtered by tag: genealogy clear
The genealogy your family recites once a year
Every shraddha names ancestors aloud, with gotra, generation by generation. Pitru Paksha is an open family archive - if someone in the room writes it down.
What an old wedding invitation can tell you
Gotra, three generations of names, the ancestral village, a date in Samvat - the humble shaadi card is a one-page family record hiding in a steel almirah.
Tracing an indenture ancestor
For diaspora families, one document - the emigration pass - can restore the village your family lost. Where the records are, and how to work them.
Interviewing your grandparents: a practical guide
Twenty questions, in the right order, that recover most of what a family has forgotten.