Chajul, Quiché, Guatemala Genealogy

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

History

 * When Spaniards and indigenous Tlaxcalans and Cholulans invaded Guatemala in the 1520s, Chajul and other indigenous Ixil and Uspantek peoples resisted the conquest for several years because they lived in the Cuchumatanes range and their warriors were extremely ferocious.
 * Their final defeat was made in December 1530, and because of their prolonged resistance, the surviving warriors were marked as slaves in punishment.
 * During the colonial period the town was a doctrine of the Dominican friars.
 * On August 12, 1872, the de facto government of provisional president Miguel García Granados created the department of Quiché, to which Chajul has belonged since then.
 * During the Civil War of Guatemala in the 1980s, the town was the scene of bloody battles between the Guatemalan Army and the Guerrilla Army of the Poor.
 * The municipality of Chajul has a population of approximately 32,000 people

Civil Registration

 * 1877-1980 Guatemala, Civil Registration, 1877-1980 at Ancestry - index & images ($)
 * 1878-1933 (*) at FamilySearch Catalog - index & images

Church Records

 * 1581-1977 at FamilySearch — How to Use this Collection; index and images

Census Records

 * 1819 (*) at FamilySearch Catalog - index & images

Cemeteries

 * Cementerio Municipal de Chajul
 * 80% of the communities have their own cemetery located on communal lands