Biography
Early years
Maria Skłodowska was born in Warsaw, in the Russian partition of Poland, on 7 November 1867, the fifth and youngest child of well-known teachers Bronisława, née Boguska, and Władysław Skłodowski. The elder siblings of Maria (nickname: Mania) were Zofia (born 1862, nickname:Zosia), Józef (born 1863, nickname:Józio), Bronisława (born 1865, nickname: Bronia) and Helena (born 1866, nickname: Hela).
On both the paternal and maternal sides, the family had lost their property and fortunes through patriotic involvements in Polish national uprisings aimed at restoring Poland's independence (the most recent had been the January Uprising of 1863–65). This condemned the subsequent generation, including Maria, her elder sisters and her brother, to a difficult struggle to get ahead in life.
