Here's what you will find in this section:
International: on this page we discuss some of the challenges you may face in doing international research and highlight some sources for international records.
Your level of difficulty in finding and working with international records for genealogy can depend on a number of factors, including the number of conflicts in a nation's history; historical changes in a nation's borders, regions, or name; the language(s) used in record keeping; or the racial or ethnic identity of your family members, to name a few.
While we cannot list specific resources for every nation here, we have selected a few examples of resources that may be directly helpful to you or may help point you to resources covering the area you're researching. You can also visit the Getting Started section for more ideas about types of resources and organizations to look for.
As a reminder, it's smart to be careful about sharing information about yourself and your living family. You should always obtain permission from living family members before making information about them available to other people. You should also read privacy information carefully for any subscription-based service before sharing your personal information.
U.S. National Archives Ethnic Heritage links
This list was compiled by NARA to assist researchers with finding international resources.
This is a project from Stanford Libraries and the Hoover Institution Library & Archives to digitally preserve and make more accessible thousands of original print newspaper publications collected by the Hoover Institution and now housed by Stanford Libraries.
This is a subscription-based source of both U.S. and international records. Some services and features can be used for free, including tools to create a family tree, but access to most records requires paid membership.
Many libraries, including the Princeton Public Library, offer access to the library edition of this database. Other Ancestry properties, including Fold3, may also contain some international records and are available at some local libraries, including the Princeton Public Library.
Privacy statement for Ancestry and its properties.
This is a wide-ranging, subscription-based genealogy database run by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Tools include a family tree builder as well as access to records. Services can also be accessed through local research centers.
Many libraries, including the Princeton Public Library, offer access to the library edition of this database.
Privacy statement for FamilySearch.
This is an open web-based genealogy site that serves as an index to online genealogy sources. No registration is necessary.
This is an online repository for an international community of research libraries and includes many historical records and genealogy materials that may be of interest to researchers. Some materials on this database are freely available, while others require affiliation with one of the member libraries.
These are some examples of the types of organizations you can look for to help you in your international family research, although each country will manage its records differently. You may also run into various difficulties in areas that have had multiple conflicts, extreme changes in leadership or government styles, or whose borders have changed over time, as discussed on our Trouble Spots page. If you are unable to find the information you are looking for from a general search, it can also be helpful to use message boards (such as those found on Ancestry.com) or social media to find tips and tricks from other people doing similar research.