Élisabeth Thible (née Estrieux) was born in Lyon, France, on 8 March 1757.
Élisabeth Thible was born on 8 March 1757 in the city of Lyon, France, then one of the kingdom's most important commercial and cultural centers. Little is documented about her early life, family circumstances, or education, as was common for women of non-noble birth in eighteenth-century France whose lives were rarely chronicled unless they achieved public distinction.
Her birth surname is generally recorded as Estrieux, with 'Thible' (also rendered 'Tible' or 'Thyel' in some secondary sources) coming from marriage. The inconsistency in spelling across historical and modern references reflects the limited documentary record surviving for her compared to more prominent contemporaries.
Though she would remain an obscure figure for the first decades of her life, Lyon's status as a hub of scientific curiosity and Enlightenment-era experimentation—particularly following the Montgolfier brothers' pioneering hot-air balloon demonstrations beginning in 1783—positioned her, by circumstance or ambition, to become part of one of the most celebrated technological spectacles of her era: the dawn of human flight.