San Marcos Department, Guatemala Genealogy

Guide to Department of San Marcos ancestry, family history and genealogy: birth records, marriage records, death records, church records, parish registers, and civil registration.

History

 * The Villa de Tejutla, the official name of the town, is so old that when the Spanish conquerors arrived in the region in 1524, because of its textile industry, it was already a very important town within the towns of the Mam race.
 * The Department of San Marcos was part of the Sixth State of Los Altos and of all the attempts and movements to form that State, although it failed in 1840 after its second attempt.
 * On May 8, 1866, the government of Marshal Vicente Cerna y Cerna elevated San Marcos to department status.
 * In September 1897, a group of revolutionaries took up arms in order to seize various institutions and take over the government. On September 15, the revolutionary forces proclaimed their victory and took Ocós, Colomba and Coatepeque, but on October 4 the army counterattacked and regained control ending the revolution.
 * The Department of San Marcos has a population of approximately 996,000 people.

Civil Registration and Church Records
Most of the research you will do will be in these two records. Currently, there are no church records filmed for San Marcos Department. These records for towns in San Marcos, are found mixed in with neighboring parishes:
 * 1877-2008 - at FamilySearch — index and images
 * 1877-1980 - Guatemala, Civil Registration, 1877-1980 - in Ancestry ($) — index and images
 * 1877-1994 -
 * 1877-1994 - Guatemala, San Marcos, Civil Registration, 1877-1994. Additional towns.
 * Guatemala, San Marcos, Malacatán, Catholic Church Records, 1625-1938, images only.
 * Guatemala, San Marcos, Tacaná, Catholic Church Records, 1766-1900

Additional online records may be listed in the Family History Library Catalog for places within Guatemala, San Marcos.

Reading the Records

 * You do not have to be fluent in Spanish to read your documents. Genealogical records usually contain a limited vocabulary. Use this Spanish Genealogical Word List to translate the important points in the document. Handwriting skills are taught in BYU Spanish Script Tutorial.


 * Online Learning Center class on reading Spanish handwriting:
 * Deciphering Spanish Handwriting


 * Detailed instructions for reading Spanish records, examples of common documents, and practice exercises for developing skills in translating them can be found in the Spanish Records Extraction Manual.
 * The Spanish Documents Script Tutorial also provides lessons and examples.

Building a Family Record with a Search Strategy
Many articles on strategy are available on the Wiki, but here is a simple set of steps to guide you
 * Search for the relative or ancestor you selected. When you find his birth/baptism/christening record, then search for the births of his brothers and sisters.
 * Next, search for the marriage of his parents. The marriage record will have information that will often help you find the birth records of the parents, and even the names of their parents.
 * You can estimate the ages of the parents and determine a birth year to search for their birth records.
 * Search the death registers for all known family members.
 * Repeat this process for both the father and the mother, starting with their birth records, then their siblings' births, then their parents' marriages, and so on.
 * If earlier generations (parents, grandparents, etc.) do not appear in the records, search neighboring parishes.