People have left these shores or arrived at them for all manner of reasons, and the details of migration were often unrecorded by either the country of origin or the destination. This is why passenger lists, sometimes compiled by governments or otherwise by trade bodies or shipping companies, are incredibly useful. On these pages you will find guidance on using them – they typically start in the mid to late 19th century.

Sometimes people arriving in Britain became naturalised citizens, but before 1844 this required an Act of Parliament. A cheaper option was denization, which meant being a British subject but with reduced rights – they could not inherit land, for example. The easiest way to become naturalised was to marry someone native to Britain. The Huguenot Society has published useful books of naturalisations and denizations going back to the early 1500s. Good old census records are another vital source, back to 1851, as they list a person’s country of origin (though sadly rarely with more detail than that).

For outward migrations, you will be reliant on the country they travelled to – in the case of North America and Australia, there are plenty of records as our features in the pages that follow reveal.