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 articles. Family Histories 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.