Dmitri Mendeleev’s mother had 17 children. Mendeleev was the youngest child in a large Siberian family, although only eight of the children survived to young adulthood.
His mother, Maria Dmitrievna Kornileva, managed the family’s glass factory after Mendeleev’s father became blind and lost his teaching position. The factory later burned down, leaving the family in serious financial difficulty.
That hardship did not end Mendeleev’s education. After his father’s death and the factory fire, his mother took him across Russia in 1849, first seeking admission to Moscow University and then traveling to Saint Petersburg. He entered the Main Pedagogical Institute there in 1850.
A common mix-up is confusing the number of children born with the number who survived. The best-supported figure for births is 17; eight survived to young adulthood.