Published accounts of families in foreign countries exist
just as they do in North America: as book length treatments, as individual
families in genealogical compendia or dictionaries, and as periodical
Family history books published in foreign countries often
follow family branches down to the family member who emigrated. Thus,
knowing what you know about the immigrant, you should be able to recognize
an emigrant in a foreign family history as being your relative.
Book-length genealogies are not quite as common in other
countries as they are in North America, and they differ in some significant
ways. In North America, many descendant genealogies begin with the immigrant,
and the descendants are arranged in family groups, with each child having
a number, under which they are continued later in the book. Versions of
this format are called the "Register" or "Record"
style of descendancy.
Foreign genealogies don't have an immigrant with which
to begin. Rather, they tend to begin with the earliest known ancestor.
For most families, this means someone born about 1600 (give or take 50
years). Descendants are then discussed in an outline style, with children
and descendants of the first child discussed before the second child,
etc. As with all published accounts, some branches are more fully researched
and developed than others, depending on the records, as well as the ability
and interest of the researcher.