Family Life

Not much is known of Gauss' parents other than the fact they were poor bricklayers. It is also unclear whether or not he had any siblings.
In October of 1805, Gauss married Johanna Ostoff and he and his new wife lived happily together. That is, until 1808, when a chain of unfortunate events occurred that began with the death of Gauss' father. Then, only four years after their marriage, Johanna died after giving birth to their second son, who also passed soon after his mother. Their deaths left Gauss heart-broken, and he, with his three young children, lived with Gauss' best friend, Olbers, for a year while he put the pieces of his life back together again. In 1810, Gauss and Johanna's best friend, Minna, wed. They had three children together, even though their relationship seemed to be more of a practical marriage than a romantic one.

Johanna Ostoff

Despite all of the trials and misfortune in his personal life, Gauss continued to work and progess in his quest to futher develop mathematical theories and definitions.

Education

Gottingen University

After attending the Gymnasium, Carl Gauss entered into the Brunswick Collegium Carolinum with the financial support of the Duke of Brunswick, who had recognized his potential early on. It was there at the academy that Gauss made a great discovery. He proved what other mathematicians thought was impossible, Gauss found that, with only a compass and straight edge, he could construct a regular seventeen-gon. This discovery pleased him so much that he gave up all aspirations in other areas and dedicated himself to mathematics. From the Collegium Carolinum, he moved onto Gottingen University, again with the help the Duke of Brunswick. There, he wrote a proof called, "The Fundamental theorem of Algebra" which states that every algebraic equation has at least one solution. Also while he was at Gottingen University Gauss proved the modern number theory (which describes the properties of numbers) in his famous Disquisitiones Arithmeticae. Carl Gauss spent the rest of his life at the university, learning and teaching.

Early Life
Carl Friedrich Gauss was born a genius. Some reports say that he was correcting his father's arithmetic by the time he was three years old. He amazed his elementary school teacher when he was given the assignment to add up the whole numbers between 1 and 100 and shortly thereafter came up to his teacher with a paper that simply said, "5050." Gauss had quickly realized that adding the numbers from the opposite ends of the spectrum (1+100, 2+99, 3+98, etc.) yielded the same answer, 101. So he multiplied 50 and 101 and ended up with 5050.
At age 11, with the helping hand of his elementary school teacher, Gauss began an education at the Gymnasium, where he learned Latin and high German.