El Progreso Department, Guatemala Genealogy

Guatemala Wiki Topics
Beginning Research
Research Strategies Record Finder Finding Town of Origin Online Learning
Record Types
Census Church Records Civil Registration Colonial Records Compiled Genealogies	Emigration & Immigration Military Records Online Records Periodicals Religious Records
Guatemala Background
Gazetteers History Jurisdictions Languages Maps	Naming Customs Social Life & Customs Spanish Word List
Local Research Resources
Archives & Libraries Societies FamilySearch Centers

Guatemala

Department of El Progreso

Guide to Department of El Progreso family history and genealogy: birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, family history, and military records.

Department of El Progreso

Municipalities

El Jícaro Guastatoya Morazán San Agustín Acasaguastlán

San Antonio La Paz San Cristóbal Acasaguastlán Sanarate Sansare

Civil Registration and Church Records

Most of the research you will do will be in these two records.

• 1877-1994 - Guatemala, El Progreso, Civil Registration, 1877-1994
• 1877-1994 - Guatemala, El Progreso, Civil Registration, 1877-1994. Additional towns.
• 1581-1977 - El Progreso, Guatemala, Catholic Church Records, 1581-1977

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

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 interactive slideshow lessons are available to help you learn to read these records:

• Reading Spanish Handwritten Records, Lesson 1
• Reading Spanish Handwritten Records, Lesson 2
• Reading Spanish Handwritten Records, Lesson 3

• 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.

In other languages: English | español |