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What was Charles Darwin鈥檚 family life like? | Britannica
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They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors.</div> </a> <div data-popper-arrow></div> </div> <span class="btn btn-link editor-link p-0 qa-byline-link gtm-byline font-12 byline-contributor text-decoration-underline"> The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica</span></div> <div class="last-updated font-12 font-serif"> <span class="text-gray-700"> Last Updated: <time datetime="2025-01-21T00:00:00CST" >Jan 21, 2025</time> </span> </div></div> <div class="mt-20"> <div class="collection-content topic-paragraph"> <article class="content"><div class="font-serif"><p>Charles Darwin was born in England to a well-to-do family in 1809. His father was a doctor, and his mother鈥攚ho died when he was only eight years old鈥攚as the daughter of a successful 18th-century industrialist. Darwin was not the first of his family to gravitate toward naturalism: his father鈥檚 father, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Erasmus-Darwin" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Erasmus Darwin</a>, was a physician, inventor, and poet who had developed his own theories on the evolution of species. Darwin later married his first cousin on his mother鈥檚 side, Emma Wedgwood. Together they had 10 children, 3 of whom died at a young age.</p></div></article></div> </div> <div class="related-questions mb-30"> <h4 class="mb-15">Related Questions</h4> <ul class="list-unstyled"> <li class=""> <a class="p-15 mb-10 rounded text-black font-weight-semi-bold d-block" href="/question/What-is-Charles-Darwin-famous-for">What is Charles Darwin famous for?</a> </li> <li class=""> <a class="p-15 mb-10 rounded text-black font-weight-semi-bold d-block" href="/question/What-is-evolution-as-Charles-Darwin-understood-it">What is evolution, as Charles Darwin understood it?</a> </li> <li class=""> <a class="p-15 mb-10 rounded text-black font-weight-semi-bold d-block" href="/question/What-was-Charles-Darwins-educational-background">What was Charles Darwin鈥檚 educational background?</a> </li> <li class=""> <a class="p-15 mb-10 rounded text-black font-weight-semi-bold d-block" href="/question/What-were-the-social-impacts-of-Charles-Darwins-work">What were the social impacts of Charles Darwin鈥檚 work?</a> </li> <li class="d-none"> <a class="p-15 mb-10 rounded text-black font-weight-semi-bold d-block" href="/question/Why-is-biology-important">Why is biology important?</a> </li> </ul> <button class="top-questions-show-more-btn mt-15 d-flex align-items-center align-self-start justify-content-center btn btn-white font-14 d-inline"> <span class="material-icons" data-icon="expand_more"></span> Show More </button> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <aside class="col-md-da-320"></aside> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </main> <div id="md-footer"></div> <noscript><iframe src="//www.googletagmanager.com/ns.html?id=GTM-5W6NC8" height="0" width="0" style="display:none;visibility:hidden"></iframe></noscript> <script type="text/javascript" id="_informizely_script_tag"> var IzWidget = IzWidget || {}; (function (d) { var scriptElement = d.createElement('script'); scriptElement.type = 'text/javascript'; scriptElement.async = true; scriptElement.src = "https://insitez.blob.core.windows.net/site/f780f33e-a610-4ac2-af81-3eb184037547.js"; var node = d.getElementById('_informizely_script_tag'); node.parentNode.insertBefore(scriptElement, node); } )(document); </script> <!-- Ortto ebmwprod capture code --> <script> window.ap3c = window.ap3c || {}; var ap3c = window.ap3c; ap3c.cmd = ap3c.cmd || []; ap3c.cmd.push(function() { ap3c.init('ZO4siT4cLwnykPnzZWJtd3Byb2Q', 'https://engage.email.britannica.com/'); ap3c.track({v: 0}); }); ap3c.activity = function(act) { ap3c.act = (ap3c.act || []); ap3c.act.push(act); }; var s, t; s = document.createElement('script'); s.type = 'text/javascript'; s.src = "https://engage.email.britannica.com/app.js"; t = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; t.parentNode.insertBefore(s, t); </script> <script class="marketing-page-info" type="application/json"> {"pageType":"TopicTopQuestionsPage","templateName":"TOP_QUESTION","pageNumber":1,"pagesTotal":5,"pageId":null,"pageLength":null,"initialLoad":true,"lastPageOfScroll":false} </script> <script class="marketing-content-info" type="application/json"> [] </script> <script src="https://cdn.britannica.com/mendel-resources/3-133/js/libs/jquery-3.5.0.min.js?v=3.133.9"></script> <script type="text/javascript" data-type="Init Mendel Code Splitting"> (function() { $.ajax({ dataType: 'script', cache: true, url: 'https://cdn.britannica.com/mendel-resources/3-133/dist/topic-top-questions-page.js?v=3.133.9' }); })(); </script> <script class="analytics-metadata" type="application/json"> {"leg":"B","adLeg":"B","userType":"ANONYMOUS","pageType":"TopicTopQuestionsPage","pageSubtype":"TOP_QUESTION","articleTemplateType":null,"gisted":false,"pageNumber":1,"hasSummarizeButton":false,"hasAskButton":false} </script> <script type="text/javascript"> EBStat={accountId:-1,hostnameOverride:'webstats.eb.com',domain:'www.britannica.com', json:''}; </script> <script type="text/javascript"> ( function() { $.ajax( { dataType: 'script', cache: true, url: '//www.britannica.com/webstats/mendelstats.js?v=1' } ) .done( function() { try {writeStat(null,EBStat);} catch(err){} } ); })(); </script> <div id="bc-fixed-dialogue"></div> </body> </html>