 He was born Józef Kalinowski to a noble "szlachta" family in the city of Vilnius (Vilna).At the time he was born, the area was known as a Russian partition, though it had formerly been part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.He was the second son of Andrew Kalinowski (1805–1878), an assistant superintendent professor of mathematics at the local Institute for Nobles ("Instytut Szlachecki").