While I was reading Jane Eyre, I also started reading Branwell Bronte by Winifred Gerin for my final project on Branwell's writings. From what I have read so far, I believe Jane's childhood is very similar to Charlotte's, because she was sent to boarding school by her father after her mother died when Charlotte and Bronte were quite young. Charlotte also was teacher at her boarding school and a Governess. She based "Thornfield Hall" on the home of Ellen Nussey, her best friend, because it had "chestnut trees, a battlemented rock, and a rookery."
Tom Winnifrith, who wrote The Brontes, believes Charlotte based the character of Helen Burns on her elder sister Maria who died when she was quite young. Winnifrith also believes that "the afflictions of her father and brother enabled Charlotte to give an accurate portrait of both drunkenness and recovery from blindness, and may have prompted psychological and symbolic speculation" in Jane Eyre.
I also read Father of the Brontes by Annette B. Hopkins. Hopkins believes Mrs. Reed is based on Charlotte's Aunt Elizabeth Branwell, because Charlotte had a lot of resentment against her aunt for trying to take the place of her mother. When Charlotte gave her father a copy of Jane Eyre, he exclaimed, "Girls, do you know that Charlotte has been writing a book, and it is much better than likely?"
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