 He was born in Brussels when Belgium was annexed to the French Empire, and the French Republican Calendar was still in force, and his birthday is therefore properly "10 messidor An XIII".He married Adélaïde Barbe Joseph Gilain in Tienen on 8 August 1869.They had one daughter, Thérèse Marie Euphrasie Josèphe, who married a future "procureur-général" at the Belgian Supreme Court, Georges-Marie "Viscount" Terlinden.