Jean-Martin Charcot was born on November 29, 1825, in Paris, France, and died in 1893, in the town of Montsauche les Settons in Burgundy. He was the eldest of 5 children of Simon-Pierre Charcot (1798-1863), a carriage builder, and Jeanne-Georgette Saussier (1808-1839). Charcot experienced loss from an early age: His mother, Jeanne Saussier, died prematurely at the age of 30, when Jean-Martin Charcot was 14 years old. Among his brothers, Eugène died shortly after his birth, and Jean-Eugène died prematurely at age 37  

Jean-Martin Charcot married in 1864, at the age of 38, to Augustine-Victoire Laurent (1834-1899), who was 29 years old. Augustine had one daughter, Marie Charlotte Thérèse Durvis (1854-1936), whom Charcot helped raise from the age of 10. Charcot and Augustine-Victoire had a couple of children, Jeanne Marie Amélie Claudine Charcot, born in 1865 and died in 1940, age 75, and Jean-Baptiste Charcot, born in 1867 and died in 1937, age 70.  Jean-Baptiste, very interestingly, followed his father's footsteps by becoming a doctor, but abandoned his medical career, becoming a famous maritime explorer, known worldwide as Commander Charcot.

An analysis of the genealogy of Professor Jean-Martin Charcot brings to light several factors that allow us to better understand his personality and his trajectory. The simple origin and losses in childhood and adolescence may have contributed to the formation of Charcot's personality and character, but they did not interrupt his rise as an influential name in French society and in world medicine and science.