Gurcharan Singh Gill

Gurcharan Singh Gill (born c. 1935 ) is a genealogist and mathematician who is claimed to be the first Sikh convert to Mormonism. He served as the first mission president of the Bangalore India Mission. Gill is a retired (emeritus) math professor at Brigham Young University. Early in his life, a brother (Ajaib Singh) and sister (Nasib) of his died due to illness, which had a lasting impact on the young Gill.

Genealogical research After becoming a Mormon, Gill returned to his native India to conduct genealogical research into his family by scouring and locating native-sources. These records detail land ownership pedigrees for families of the village.

On July 17, 2010, Gill held a workshop at the University of the Fraser Valley, Abbotsford, which touched-upon the objective of gaining permission from Deputy Commissioners and the Punjab government to preserve thee records electronically through the means of digitization and indexing at no cost to the districts or the Punjab government. Furthermore, he stressed upon the importance of translating the records into English.

Education and career Gill left India to pursue studies in USA in 1954. Gill earned a bachelor's degree (B.Sc.) in Mathematics and Physics from BYU in 1958 and a master's degree (M.Sc., 1960) and doctorate (PhD, 1965) from the University of Utah, both in mathematics. Gill worked as a professor of mathematics at Brigham Young University from 1960 to 1963 and again from 1965 to 1999. After retiring in 1999, he dedicated himself to genealogical research, with an emphasis on the land records of Moga district.