Our roots live in what we remember.

Every family has stories that survive because they are told. The Man Who Found His Roots follows one of them: the forced journey from Kayalar to Anatolia and the reunion with the family’s roots generations later.

During the population exchange in 1924, Selahattin Bey, Fevziye Hanım, and their family left Kayalar, near Thessaloniki. They travelled by sea to Samsun and settled in Tokat. They built a new life, but memories of their former home, familiar streets and ancestors endured.

The memories passed to younger generations. For Dr. Alaattin Büyükkaya, born in Tokat, Kayalar was more than an old place name. It became a home he knew through stories, and a past he wanted to rediscover.

Many years later, he visited the town now known as Ptolemaida. Local friendships helped him retrace the family property. A mulberry tree, gravestones and a handful of soil became tangible connections between memory and belonging.

Abdurrahim Dede tells this journey not only as a private family history but also as a reflection on migration, solidarity, and the shared memory of two communities.