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How are the Rougon and Macquart branches of the family connected?

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Black and white portrait of French novelist Emile Zola with glasses, a full beard, and mustache, wearing a suit and looking to the side. — Émile Zola French novelist Émile Zola.

In the Rougon-Macquart cycle by Émile Zola, the Rougon and Macquart branches of the family are connected through the character of Tante Dide.1

The series documents the lives of these two branches to explore the deterministic influence of heredity and environment during the Second Empire:12

The Rougons: Represent the legitimate branch of the family.1
The Macquarts: Represent the illegitimate and lower-class branch of the family.1

Zola used this genealogical structure, famously detailed in a family tree featured in the final novel, Doctor Pascal, to illustrate his theories on how hereditary traits and social conditions shaped the various members of the family.12