Gervaise Macquart

The second daughter of Antoine Macquart and Fine. She was a cripple from birth. Her mother seeing her weakness tried to improve her condition by putting her on a course of aniseed.

She became a mother at 14(1842) and had a second child by the same father (Lantier) in 1846. She continued to live with her parents. On the death of her mother in 1850 she ran away with Lantier to Paris.