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Across the early-modern and modern empires, Roma/“Gypsies” appeared among people banished overseas. Patterns differed by country. England (and Scotland) periodically expelled “Egyptians” from the 1500s and, under 17th–18th-century transportation laws, some Roma were shipped with ordinary convicts to North America (e.g., Virginia, Maryland, Jamaica); after 1788 Britain’s transport shifted and men and women of Romany heritage turn up among convicts sent to Australia (New South Wales, later Van Diemen’s Land). 

France often punished “Bohémiens” with galleys, forced labor, or internal exile, yet during large convict round-ups (notably 1719–22) French Gyspies were swept into deportations to Louisiana or Caribbean colonies—though records rarely label ethnicity cleanly.

For South America, Portugal notoriously deported Ciganos to Brazil in the 17th–18th centuries; Spain generally barred Gitanos from emigrating to the colonies, preferring internal deportation (e.g., to naval presidios, the Canary Islands) rather than shipments to Spanish America. However, many Spanish Gypsies were deported to the South American colonies. 

England, Scotland, Switzerland, France, Spain, and Portugal, used as a place to be "rid" of people they deemed undesirable and this always included Gypsies. Because Gypsies were over-policed under vagrancy and poor-law regimes, they appear, sporadically and unevenly but regularly in the transport streams to North America, Brazil (South America), and later Australia.

Sadly, Gypsy children from England were sent to Australia as a part of "child migration" schemes (late 1800s–1970s): After these transportations ended, church/charity and government programs sent tens of thousands of poor British children overseas (mainly to Canada and Australia). These weren’t ethnic programs; but Gypsy children from Traveller backgrounds were caught up and found themselves in the colonies. Stealing children from Gypsies was common in many European countries, usually placed in institutions or orphanages. In the case of England, they were stolen and then deported to Australia under general "criminal or welfare/migration" regimes. Though not a specific deportation policy aimed at Roma/Travellers, Gypsies did have to hide their children if the "social" was coming around as their children faced being "removed". 

In addition to deportations in the 18th century, and child removals in the 19th century, many Anglo-Romani families immigrated to America in 1850's in search of better opportunities. Swiss Jenish and Sinti also immigrated to America in the 1850's as a result of Swiss anti-Vagrancy laws. 

The was a period of mass German emigration to America (1850-1914) and at this this, German-speaking Sinti/Roma also made their way to America..  They travelled  on the same routes through Bremen and Hamburg to U.S. ports (New York, Baltimore, Philadelphia) as did non-Roma Germans. Reasons to immigrate included tighter vagrancy/policing regimes in the German lands and Central Europe and the lure of the broader German-American economy. Families often settled where German communities already were, like Pennsylvania, Ohio, the Midwest, and the Mid-Atlantic where they worked in itinerant trades (horse dealing, metalwork/tinkering, entertainment) alongside seasonal or wage work.

Between forced deportations, child deportations, and the stigma associated with Roma ancestry, resulted in many Roma "disappearing" into the colonies. Many people from the colonies have Romani ancestry and do not know it. If you suspect you have Romani in your family, we will be happy to help you figure out the details.