Born Joseph Aloysius Dwan in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Dwan moved with his family to the United States when he was 11 years old.

Born in Sainte-Foy-lès-Lyon, Rhône, Carrel was raised in a devout Catholic family and was educated by Jesuits, though he no longer practiced his religion when he entered the university.

Born into an old, wealthy equestrian branch of the Plebeian Octavii family, Augustus was adopted posthumously by his maternal great-uncle Gaius Julius Caesar in 44 BC following Caesar's assassination.

Born to a wealthy family in Paris, Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier inherited a large fortune at the age of five with the passing of his mother.

Born from a noble family of the province of Soule, his father Michel was born in Arrast-Larrebieu and his mother was Irish.

Born in Riga in Livonia, then part of the Russian Empire, the Jewish German-speaking Nimzowitsch came from a wealthy family, where he learned chess from his father, who was a merchant.

Born into a privileged Unitarian family, Potter, along with her younger brother, Walter Bertram ( 1872 – 1918 ), grew up with few friends outside her large extended family.

Born to a middle-class family in Missoula, Montana, Lynch spent his childhood traveling around the United States, before going on to study painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia, where he first made the transition to producing short films.

Born to a family of low status in the Roman province of Dalmatia, Diocletian rose through the ranks of the military to become cavalry commander to the Emperor Carus.

Born into a working-class family, from an early age Ortega developed a hatred of the ruling President Anastasio Somoza Debayle, who was widely recognized as a dictator, and became involved in the underground movement to oppose Somoza's regime.

Born into a family of relatively low status, his parents sent him to be educated by the monks of Fulda-one of the most impressive centres of learning in the Frank lands-perhaps due to his small stature ( Einhard referred to himself as a " tiny manlet ") which restricted his riding and sword-fighting ability, Einhard concentrated his energies towards scholarship and especially to the mastering of Latin.

Born into a family of tradesmen, the Imam's family were of Persian origin.

Born into a very wealthy landowning family in the north of Mexico, he was the proto-type of the respectable upper-class politician ; a background which supplied the centre around which opposition to the dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz could coalesce.

Born in Innsbruck, he was the son of Duke Ernest the Iron of the Leopoldinian line of the Habsburg family, the ruler of Inner Austria, i. e. the duchies of Styria, Carinthia and Carniola, and of Ernest's wife Cymburgis of Masovia.

Born into an upper-middle-class family in Blundellsands, Lancashire, Gardner spent much of his childhood abroad in Madeira.

Born into a middle-class family in Etterbeek, Brussels, he took a keen interest in Scouting in early life, something that would prove highly influential on his later work.

Born in Berlin, Germany to Jewish parents, he escaped Nazi Germany in January 1936, emigrating with his family to the United States.

Born into a large family in Dudley, England, Whale early discovered his artistic talent and studied art.

Born Georg Henri Anton Ivens into a wealthy family, Ivens went to work in one of his father's photo supply shops and from there developed an interest in film.

Born in Burslem, Staffordshire, England, the twelfth and last child of Thomas Wedgwood and Margret Wedgwood ( née Stringer ; d. 1766 ), Josiah was raised within a family of English Dissenters.

Born in Southampton into a seafaring family, Jellicoe joined the Royal Navy as a cadet in 1872 and was posted to HMS Britannia.

Born into a wealthy middle-class family in Trier ( formerly in Prussian Rhineland, now called Rhineland-Palatinate ), Marx studied at both the University of Bonn and the University of Berlin, where he became interested in the philosophical ideas of the Young Hegelians.

Born in Berlin, Germany, on 22 June 1910, he moved with his family in 1912 to Braunsberg, East Prussia, where his father was a postal clerk.

Born in Washington state to modest circumstances, Barker enlisted in the United States Navy on the outbreak of World War II.

Born into a modest family, Marsh was able to afford higher education thanks to the generosity of his wealthy uncle George Peabody.

Born into a large family in the northern Italian city of Turin ( Torino ) in 1850, Tamagno was the son of a wine-seller who ran a modest trattoria.

Born in modest circumstances in Schönbuchel ( now Krásný Buk ), Bohemia, Heinrich was given into the care of a rich uncle, whose thriving business empire he inherited in 1800.

Born of modest means in Columbia County, Georgia, McDuffie's extraordinary intellect was noticed while clerking at a store in Augusta, Georgia.

Born as Ellen Henrietta Swallow in Dunstable, Massachusetts to Fanny Taylor and Peter Swallow ( who were members of old families of modest means that prized education ) she was the first woman admitted to Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Born in Valencia, Molina started playing professionally with modest UD Alzira, being purchased in 1991 by local giants Valencia CF.

Born to a modest family in Chamdo ( eastern Tibet ), he was recognised as the reincarnation of Lungtok Gyatso, the 9th Dalai Lama, in 1820.

Born Pierre Louis Delâge to a family of modest means in Cognac in the Charente département of France, as an infant he lost the sight in one eye.

Born in Stoke Newington, North London, to devout Jewish immigrant parents of modest means, Levy was educated at Grocers, later known as Hackney Downs Grammar School.

Born in Le Mée-sur-Seine into modest circumstances, Chapu moved to Paris with his family and in 1847 entered the Petit École with the intention of studying drawing and becoming an interior decorator.

Born to a family of modest means, Kennard worked as a secretary to pay for her education.

They came from the heart of the Landais countryside and carried the modest title of " senhor " of Labrit up to 1312, then through purchases, marriages, inheritances, they went on to settle in Marensin and Born and then Bazadais.

Born to a family of modest means, she entered the service of the Crown Prince at the age of 22.

Born in Hama, Syria into a formerly wealthy land-owning family, al-Hawrani himself grew up in modest circumstances as the family wealth had been dissipated.

Born in Risør, Mykland started his career with modest Bryne FK, being " brought home " to IK Start in 1989, for NOK 60. 000.

Born around World War II in Wortegem-Petegem ( between Oudenaarde and Ghent ), East Flanders, Naessens grew up in a modest family.

Born in Padua, the son of an innkeeper, who claimed a connection to the noble Cornaro family of Venice, a connection he was at pains to prove, Cornaro expanded a modest stake from his mother's brother into a fortune based on his entrepreneurial skills, especially in hydraulics that reclaimed wetlands for farming, expressed in his Tratto di Acque (" Tract on Water management "), ( 1566 ).