# Reclus family

The Reclus family includes the children and extended family of pastor Jacques Reclus (1796–1882) and teacher Zéline Reclus (1805–1887). The Reclus family's notoriety is primarily the result of Jacques and Zéline's five sons: Élie, Élisée, Paul, Armand, and Onésime. The family became known for their distinctive careers in geography, anarchism, journalism, medicine, and other fields during the 19th and 20th centuries.
The Reclus family originated in Le Fleix, a village 5km from Sainte-Foy-la-Grande. The family included landowners, coopers, and educated persons. The family was part of France's Protestant minority.

## Jacques Reclus

Jacques Reclus was the son of Jeanne Virolle (1767-1819) and Jean Reclus (1760-1848). Jacques was a pastor in Montcaret and taught at Sainte-Foy-La-Grande's Protestant college. Resigning from the national church, Jacques led a group of "dissident peasants" in creating an independent church in Orthez.

## Zéline Reclus

Zéline Reclus was born in La Roche-Chalais on January 25th, 1805. Zéline was the daughter of Pierre Pascal Trigant de la Faniouse (1775-1840) and Rosalie Gast (1784-1871). She married Jacques Reclus at the age of 19. In 1834, Zéline opened a school in Orthez.
Zéline earned a qualification as a boarding mistress (Maîtresse de Pension). She was praised as a "zealous" and "highly educated" teacher. A local, Francis Jammes, wrote that "every student left [the school] singularly distinguished in manners, whatever class they came from". She taught at the school until 1886.

## The Five Reclus Brothers

During their childhoods, the Reclus family was then based in Sainte-Foy-la-Grande, in the Gironde region of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine department in Southwestern France. Of the siblings, Élie and Élisée were particularly close and influenced their brothers and sisters. Élisée and Élie contributed to early feminist activity in France as part of a millieu of anarchist geographers and militant feminists that developed in the 19th Century.

### Élie Reclus (1827–1904)

Élie was an anarchist and ethnographer, and the eldest of the five brothers. He wrote on a wide variety of cultural and political topics, including in opposition to circumcision. He supported work to improve women's educational opportunities.

### Élisée Reclus (1830–1905)

Élisée was a geographer, writer, and anarchist. He was responsible for producing the 19-volume La Nouvelle Géographie universelle, la terre et les hommes. He initiated of the Anti-Marriage Movement. He collaborated with anarchist contemporaries Errico Malatesta, Luigi Galleani, Mikhail Bakunin, and Peter Kropotkin. He was a supporter of the Paris Commune. Later in life he was the chair of comparative geography at the Free University of Brussels. He was a noted advocate for vegetarianism.

### Onésime Reclus (1837–1916)

Onésime was a geographer, with a particular interest in the relationship between France and its colonies. He wrote widely on geography and culture, and contributed to the journal Tour du monde. He coined the term "Francophone".

### Armand Reclus (1843–1927)

Armand was a geographer and French naval engineer. Armand took part in French colonial campaigns in the China Seas, Japan, and Indochina. He explored the Darién Province, and contributed to the development of the Panama Canal by proposing its route. At the end of his life, the President of the Republic made him an Officer of the Legion of Honor. His politics contrasted with his brothers' anarchism. He was a friend of Lucien Napoléon Bonaparte-Wyse.

### Paul Reclus (1847–1914)

Paul was a surgeon. He researched local anesthetics, and "Reclus' disease" (fibrocystic breast changes) is named for him.

## The Six Reclus Sisters

The six daughters of Jacques and Zéline Reclus who reached adulthood were well educated and became tutors in English or German families, or worked in the school that their mother ran. Reflecting the times that they lived in, they did not receive the same fame as their brothers, although several of the sisters assisted their brothers in their personal or professional lives. The sisters especially admired Élisée; on one occasion, Noémi wrote to her friend "You know that great joy that is coming to us, a visit from Élisée! The wretch stayed twenty-four hours at most, visits and sleeping stole many of these precious moments from us".
The six sisters were:
* Loïs Reclus (1832-1917
* Marie Reclus (1834-1918)
* Zéline Reclus (1836-1911)
* Louise Reclus (1839-1917)
* Noémi Reclus (1841-1915)
* Ioana (or Johanna) Reclus (1845-1937)

## Family Tree

* Jacques Reclus (1796–1882), pastor
** Élie Reclus (1827–1904), ethnographer and anarchist
*** Paul Reclus (1858–1941), engineer, teacher, and anarchist
**** Jacques Reclus (1894–1984), Chinese-French translator and anarchist
** Élisée Reclus (1830–1905), geographer and anarchist
*** Marguerite Reclus (1860–1953)
*** Jeanne Reclus (1863–1897)
** Loïs Reclus (1832–1917)
** Marie Reclus (1834–1918)
** Zéline Reclus (1836–1911)
*** Jean-Louis Faure (1863-1944)
*** Élie Faure (1873-1937)
** Onésime Reclus (1837–1916), geographer
*** Maurice Reclus (1883–1972), historian
** Louise Reclus (1839–1917)
** Noémi Reclus (1841–1915)
** Armand Reclus (1843–1927), geographer
** Ioana (Johanna) Reclus (1845–1937)
*** Élisée Bouny (1872-1900)
*** François Bouny (1885-1965)
** Paul Reclus (1847–1914), surgeon