 Born in Piatra Neamţ, Urechia was the son of Alexandru Popovici, a member of the boyar class in Moldavia and a titular "culcer"; his mother, Eufrosina (or Euphrosina) "née" Manoliu.Both had been widowed or divorced from previous marriages, and Vasile had stepsiblings from each parent.After the "culcer" 's death, he and three other of Eufrosina's youngest children, all of them below legal age, moved in with their mother, who remarried "serdar" Fotino.