Genealogy Beyond the British Isles: Where to Start
Almost every British and Irish family has a branch that left. The worldwide page of the Genealogy Resources Directory exists for them, and for the platforms, DNA tools and software that have no nation at all. 117 entries. This is the short version.
Four kinds of website
The platforms hold records and trees from everywhere. The DNA sites test and compare. The software builds the tree on your own machine and exports the GEDCOM file that a printed chart is made from. And the national archives of the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand hold the records of arrival, which often name the parish an emigrant came from, which is the one fact the records at home may not give you.
The ten to open first
- FamilySearch. Free. Twenty billion records from 170 countries, a single shared tree and a research wiki with a page for every county. Its Full-Text Search reads unindexed deeds and wills.
- Ancestry. The largest subscription site and the largest DNA database. Best used with a target: a known parish and decade.
- MyHeritage. Strong for continental Europe and for photo tools, and it accepts DNA uploads from other companies.
- WikiTree. A free single tree with strict sourcing and DNA confirmation. Worth joining for the discipline alone.
- GEDmatch. Upload raw DNA from any company and compare with everyone else who has. A chromosome browser and clustering tools.
- DNA Painter. The Shared cM Project tool, which turns a match's shared centimorgans into a likely relationship, and What Are The Odds for testing a hypothesis.
- ISOGG wiki. The reference for genetic genealogy, free.
- Find a Grave. Volunteer cemetery records and gravestone photographs worldwide, strongest in North America and growing in the British Isles. BillionGraves is the GPS-tagged alternative.
- Cyndi's List. 300,000 categorised links, kept since 1996. When the directory does not have it, Cyndi's does.
- Legacy Family Tree Webinars. 2,500 recorded talks by working genealogists, free when live.
Software
The directory lists 21 programs. For a Windows researcher who wants one that syncs with the platforms, RootsMagic has a free edition, Family Historian is British-made and the best for diagrams, and Family Tree Maker syncs with Ancestry. Gramps and Ancestris are free and open source. Mac users have Reunion and MacFamilyTree. All of them export a GEDCOM, which is the file I need to design a circular chart. The software review on this site compares twelve of them in detail.
Where the emigrants went
The US National Archives for census, naturalisation and passenger records, Ellis Island for New York arrivals from 1820 to 1957, and Chronicling America for free American newspapers. Library and Archives Canada for census, immigration and land. The National Archives of Australia for immigration and naturalisation, Trove for free Australian newspapers, and Convict Records for the 123,000 transported. Papers Past for New Zealand. American naturalisation papers after 1906, Australian immigration files and Canadian passenger lists often record the town or parish of birth, and an obituary in Trove or Chronicling America frequently names the Irish or Scottish parish a family left.
Two things that trip people up
Other people's trees are not sources. The shared trees on Ancestry, MyHeritage, Geni and FamilySearch are full of guesses copied between users. Use them for hints, then find the record.
DNA needs a tree to make sense. A match list without a tree on each side is a list of strangers. Build the tree first, then use the Shared cM tool and the Leeds Method to sort the matches into grandparent lines.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best free genealogy website?
FamilySearch: free, the largest free record collection, and a research wiki for every country and county. WikiTree is the best free shared tree.
Which DNA test should I take for British or Irish ancestry?
Ancestry has the largest database for matching. LivingDNA gives the most detailed British and Irish regional breakdown. FamilyTreeDNA is the only one with Y-DNA and mitochondrial tests for surname lines. Upload the results to GEDmatch and MyHeritage afterwards.
How do I find where an emigrant came from?
Look at the records made where they arrived: naturalisation papers, passenger lists, obituaries in digitised newspapers and gravestones. They often record the parish of birth.
The other quick reads
All 117 Worldwide entries, with filters
Open the Worldwide view of the directory →Research done? See the 72 chart designs.