The Mauritian Family Origins Project
A few years ago, the Department of History and Political Science and the Centre for Research on Slavery and Indenture, launched a ‘Mauritian Family History’ website.
The University of Mauritius also participated in the SLAFNET Project and an ‘Origins’ sub-project was included in the Project. This site brings together these two projects: the aim is to show the extent, breadth and diversity of the origins of Mauritians. But the ancestors of Mauritians have not only come from elsewhere. Mauritians too have migrated and contributed to the creation of a Mauritian diaspora.
These diasporic links have spread far and wide across oceans and spanning most continents. Many Mauritians are keen to find not only their ancestral roots, but also family who have (re)migrated and with whom contact has been lost The original website highlighted ten families to begin with. We hope now to extend the invitation to other families to contribute their family stories and old photos of family members, homes and family heirloom (dress, jewellery etc.).
This is primarily an educational website, aimed at sharing of family experiences and in so doing, encourage others to search for family origins and provide basic information for those who are just starting out finding their family origins.
This website hopes to enable a greater understanding of how Mauritian families have been (re)constituted as they moved from their original countries to Mauritius in the 18th and 19th centuries and out again to Africa, the Americas, Europe and Australia, etc.
Not all families are able to trace their families. Those who came in the early years of settlement when records were either poorly kept or not kept at all ( as for enslaved populations) have even more difficulty and it may be near impossible to go too far back.
In future the website will consist of practical information on how to build up one’s family history and genealogy and guidelines on how to use archival records and conduct oral history. There will also be useful links for those who wish to begin to trace their family history.
The team is very grateful to the families who have contributed their stories. These are the Peerthum, Lapeyre-Roussel, Pitchen, Faron, Elizabeth, Kathrada, Bhundhoo, Nundramdoss, Teelock, Easton, Sénèque and Drack families.
FAMILY ORIGINS TEAM
Dr Vijaya Teelock
Dr Sheila Wong Kong Luong
Dr Priya Bahadoor
Dr Manorama Akung
Mr Patrick Drack
Technical Description
After several years of research on the creation of digital inventories and libraries at the University with the assistance of the SLAFNET project, the choice was finally made to opt for the OMEKA platform which made the task of uploading materials much easier for non-technical researchers. SLAFNET researchers and others had previously obtained training in metadata input in 2018 and again in 2021. Two sites have been created within the OMEKA platform. The first is the Inventory of materials project, the second is the Origins project, for the moment focused only on Mauritius.
Technical Team
Doorga UJODHA, Centre for Research on Slavery and Indenture, University of Mauritius
Gundeea NARRAINEN, Multimedia specialist, University of Mauritius
Mandira DAWOSING, Research Assistant, videos