Créole / Creole In Mauritius, a term whose meaning has shifted over time. Originally referred to anyone born on the island (including children of French settlers). Gradually narrowed to mean those of African, Malagasy, and mixed descent. Today broadly refers to the Afro-Malagasy population, distinguished from Indo-Mauritian, Sino-Mauritian, and Franco-Mauritian communities. Creole & Mauritian
General Population The Mauritian census category encompassing Creoles and others who do not identify as Hindu, Muslim, or Sino-Mauritian. A bureaucratic residual category rather than an ethnic identity, though it contains one of the most complex stories of human mixing in the world. Creole & Mauritian
Lapang Mauritian Creole word for rice stuck to the bottom of the pot. From the Malagasy ampango, with the French article la fused to the front, an example of a hidden Austronesian loanword in everyday Creole. Creole & Mauritian
Ourite Mauritian Creole word for octopus. From the Malagasy orita. One of the few Malagasy-origin words to survive in Mauritian Creole. Creole & Mauritian
Vangvang Mauritian Creole word for a vagabond. From the Malagasy vangovango. Creole & Mauritian
Malgache French term for a person from Madagascar, or for the Malagasy language and culture. Used in Mauritian colonial records and oral tradition to identify people of Malagasy origin. Creole & Mauritian
Isle de France The French name for Mauritius during the period of French colonisation (1715–1810). The island was renamed Mauritius when the British took control. Creole & Mauritian
Gens de couleur French colonial term meaning "people of colour." In Mauritius, referred to free people of mixed or African/Malagasy descent, distinguished from both the white planter class and enslaved people. Creole & Mauritian
Autosomal DNA The 22 pairs of chromosomes inherited from both parents (as distinct from the sex chromosomes X and Y). Autosomal DNA testing, offered by AncestryDNA and 23andMe, estimates the geographic origins of your ancestry by comparing your DNA to reference populations worldwide. Genetic
Phasing The process of determining which DNA segments were inherited from which parent. By comparing the DNA of siblings and parents, it is possible to separate the maternal and paternal contributions and see which ancestral components sit on which chromosomes. Genetic
Haplogroup A group of related genetic lineages sharing a common ancestor, identified through mutations in either mitochondrial DNA (maternal line) or Y-chromosome DNA (paternal line). Haplogroups trace deep ancestry (thousands or tens of thousands of years) and indicate broad geographic origins. Genetic
Y-chromosome The sex chromosome passed from father to son, essentially unchanged across generations. Y-chromosome testing reveals the direct paternal line (father, father's father, and so on) deep into the past. Genetic
Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) DNA contained in the mitochondria of cells, inherited exclusively from the mother. mtDNA testing traces the direct maternal line: mother, mother's mother, and so on. Genetic
R-S219 A Y-chromosome haplogroup found in the Jerome paternal line, tracing to a king in Leinster, Ireland, around 300 AD. This haplogroup, carried through Pierre Jerome and presumably from Jean-Pierre Galichet, provides evidence of Irish paternal ancestry. Genetic
M2b A mitochondrial haplogroup found predominantly among the Dravidian peoples of South India. In this family, M2b traces the direct maternal line through Angela, Irene François, and Camille Narsimoulou, indicating South Indian maternal ancestry. Genetic
IBD (Identical By Descent) Stretches of DNA that are identical between two individuals because they inherited them from a shared ancestor. IBD segments can identify relatives and confirm family tree connections: the longer the shared segment, the more recent the common ancestor. Genetic
SNP (Single Nucleotide Polymorphism) A variation at a single position in the DNA sequence. SNPs are the markers used by ancestry testing companies to estimate geographic origins and identify relatives. Pronounced "snip." Genetic
Hidden Markov Model (HMM) A statistical method used in DNA analysis to detect IBD segments by modelling the probability of shared ancestry along a chromosome. Used in the phasing and IBD detection work on this site. Genetic
Manumission The legal act of freeing an enslaved person. In Mauritius, manumission could be granted by the slave owner, purchased by the enslaved person, or ordered by the colonial authorities. The process was often conditional and bureaucratic, and records of manumission are an important genealogical resource. Historical
Marronage The act of escaping from slavery into the mountainous interior of the island. Marrons (escaped enslaved people) formed communities in the remote uplands of Mauritius and were actively hunted by colonial authorities and slave catchers. Historical
"N" (as a surname) In this project's records, an enslaved woman recorded with "N" in place of a surname, e.g. Marie N, Catherine N, stands for Négresse, a period French bureaucratic marker used where no surname was recorded, not a description of her actual origin. It appears on enslaved women of African, Malagasy, and Indian origin alike in the sources this project draws on; some records use other markers for the same underlying fact, e.g. "(esclave)," literally "the enslaved woman," used for Marie Madeleine. Both mark the same erasure: an owner's name preserved, the person he owned reduced to a single given name and a bureaucratic tag. Historical
Code Noir The French legal code governing the treatment of enslaved people in French colonies. Applied in Mauritius during the French period (1715–1810), it regulated everything from baptism to punishment. Its provisions were frequently ignored by slave owners. Historical
Camp Malabar The district of Port Louis, later absorbed into Plaine Verte, where most of French Mauritius's free Indian population (skilled artisans, clerks, engineers, and traders, distinct from the much larger enslaved and, later, indentured Indian populations) was settled from the 1730s. Old street names in the area, Goa Street, Calicut Street, Madras Street, still trace its ground. Not every free Indian lived there: a 1767 legal change let free Indians buy land and start businesses, and some moved well beyond the camp. Historical
Indenture / Indentured labour A system of contract labour that replaced slavery in Mauritius after abolition in 1835. Approximately 450,000 Indian labourers were brought to Mauritius between 1834 and 1920 under indenture contracts. Conditions were often barely distinguishable from slavery. Historical
Apprenticeship The transitional system imposed after abolition in 1835, requiring formerly enslaved people to continue working for their former owners for a fixed period. In practice, a mechanism for delaying true freedom. Historical
Labourdonnais Bertrand-François Mahé de Labourdonnais, French governor of Mauritius (1735–1746). Transformed the island into a major colonial port, expanded the sugar economy, and dramatically increased the importation of enslaved people. Historical Madame La Victoire Michelle Christine Bulle (1724–1793), a French settler at Grand-Port known for organising armed expeditions against maroon communities in the island's interior, for which she reportedly received a pension and royal recognition from Louis XV. Her brother Jean Bulle led a further detachment of hunters after her death. Documented independently by several eighteenth-century chroniclers, including Bernardin de Saint-Pierre and Maximilien Wiklinsky. Not one of this family's own ancestors; profiled on the history page as a portrait of settler marronage-hunting. Historical
Treaty of Paris (1814) The treaty confirming British sovereignty over Mauritius following its capture in 1810. Critically, it guaranteed the preservation of French language, law, customs, and religion, which the French planter class interpreted as including the right to own slaves. Historical
Austronesian One of the world's largest language families, spanning from Madagascar to Easter Island and from Hawaii to New Zealand. Encompasses over 1,200 languages spoken by nearly 400 million people. The connection between Malagasy and this family is the basis of the language anthropology strand. Linguistic
Proto-Austronesian (PAN) The reconstructed common ancestor of all Austronesian languages, spoken approximately 6,000 years ago. Linguists reconstruct PAN forms (marked with an asterisk, e.g. *lima for "five") by comparing patterns across living languages. Linguistic
Ma'anyan A language spoken by a small community in the Barito River valley of southern Borneo. Demonstrated by Otto Christian Dahl in 1951 to be the closest known relative of Malagasy, providing the key evidence for the Austronesian settlement of Madagascar. Linguistic
Malagasy The language of Madagascar, spoken by approximately 25 million people. An Austronesian language most closely related to Ma'anyan of Borneo, despite Madagascar's proximity to Africa. This anomaly is the starting point for the language anthropology strand. Linguistic
Cognate A word in one language that shares a common ancestor with a word in another language. Cognates are the primary evidence for establishing language families. For example, Malagasy dimy, Ma'anyan dime, and Tagalog limá (all meaning "five") are cognates descended from Proto-Austronesian *lima. Linguistic
Nusantara A term for the maritime world of island Southeast Asia: the Philippines, Borneo, Sulawesi, Java, Sumatra, and the surrounding seas. The Nusantara was the cultural and economic hub from which the Austronesian settlement of Madagascar originated. Linguistic
Dravidian A family of languages spoken primarily in South India, including Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Malayalam. The maternal haplogroup M2b in this family traces to Dravidian-speaking populations, consistent with the historical importation of South Indian women to Mauritius. Linguistic
Sound correspondence A regular pattern of sound change between related languages. For example, Proto-Austronesian *p often becomes f in Polynesian languages (PAN *pitu "seven" → Tongan fitu). Sound correspondences are more reliable evidence of language relatedness than individual word similarities. Linguistic