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During the French Revolution there was a marked increase in the interest that French expeditions in the Pacific showed in the internal dynamics and social roles of indigenous families. The observations recorded by the expeditions of Antoine Raymond Joseph Bruni d’Entrecasteaux (1791-1794) and Nicolas Baudin (1800-1804) were influenced in part by the development of the ‘science of man’ during this era but also, it is argued, by Revolutionary politics, reforms and anxieties about the family in France. This is supported by comparison between Pacific-expedition - particularly d’Entrecasteaux-expedition - and Revolutionary records. It is also argued that from this point family observations began to play a central and vital role in French anthropology at sea, as they brought together the individual and society while also, by giving deeper insight into human, social and political development, facilitating more complex evaluations of ‘civilisation’.