The Purewal family tree dates back hundreds of years, and the majority of the people in the village Shankar near the city of Jullundur in the state of Punjab, in India, bear the same last name. In Destiny, author Sukhjit S. Purewal shares his unique family saga beginning with his grandfather, Waryam Singh Purewal.

Born in 1891, Waryam was a subsistence farmer who traveled to the United States searching for a better life. He arrived in 1925 and stayed in California for twenty-eight years while his family remained in India. He initially worked as a farmhand and later owned a vineyard. At...