Responsible for the vastest South-American empire in the 15th century, the Incas became local chiefs during the Spanish colonial period. After the Independence of Peru in 1821 they disappear from view. What happened to them? Are there still Inca descendants today, where do they live and what do they do?
Ronald Elward is a Dutch writer, researcher and genealogist. He began his work on the Inca descendants in 2008, when he moved to Peru. Since then, in over 15 trips to the former Imperial capital of Cusco he has revised more than 60.000 pages in the main archives, including birth, wedding and death certificates, as well as wills of Inca aristocracy over the last 200 years. This allowed him to identify the main branches of the former ruling family that still exist. What began as a genealogy project very soon became a study into what had happened to a powerful class of indigenous individuals once Peru became a Republic. Ronald has published a series of articles based on his findings in leading Peruvian El Comercio newspaper, which partly funded his research.