MANILA, Philippines – Some 26 years after falling asleep in a train car and ending up more than 1,500 kilometers away from everything he knew, Saroo Munshi Khan (now Brierly) has found his way home.

On the Google blog, the company tells the story of Saroo, who at the age of 5 found himself separated from his home and family. While he was taken to an orphanage and adopted by an Australian family from Tasmania, he always thought of the home he left.

Technology, and 26 year-old memories, would help him find a way back.

Google writes that in 2011, Saroo used Google Earth to determine where he came from. “Using the ruler feature in Google Earth, he mapped out a search radius by making an educated guess about how far he traveled by train. After countless hours of scouring this area of Google Earth imagery, he came upon a proverbial needle in a haystack.”

As the story goes, Saroo spotted a landmark that he tracked to other landmarks that he remembered from his childhood. Eventually, those landmarks led him to a familiar neighborhood that matched his memory.

In 2012, Saroo went to Khandwa, India. With the help of locals in the area, he found his way home to his mother and surviving brother and sister, a reunion powered by technology, memory, and a bit of luck.

– Rappler.com