Migraine is a common neurological disorder with a strong genetic basis. However, the complex nature of the disorder has meant that few genes or susceptibility loci have been identified and replicated consistently to confirm their involvement in migraine. Approaches to genetic studies of the disorder have included analysis of the rare migraine subtype, familial hemiplegic migraine with several causal genes identified for this severe subtype. However, the exact genetic contributors to the more common migraine subtypes are still to be deciphered. Genome-wide studies such as genome-wide association studies and linkage analysis as well as candidate genes studies have been employed to investigate genes involved in common migraine. Neurological, hormonal and vascular genes are all considered key factors in the pathophysiology of migraine and are a focus of many of these studies. It is clear that the influence of individual genes on the expression of this disorder will vary. Furthermore, the disorder may be dependent on gene--gene and gene--environment interactions that have not yet been considered. In addition, identifying susceptibility genes may require phenotyping methods outside of the International Classification of Headache Disorders II criteria, such as trait component analysis and latent class analysis to better define the ambit of migraine expression.