Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: The House of Bourbon, a well-known European dynasty of French origin since 1272, has been reported to have descendants in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. A Jewish tribe, lost in the sixth century BC from Israel, was said to have found its way to Manipur, Mizoram, and other northeastern Indian states. And several British families, including that of famous actor Tom Alter, chose to stay in India after 1947.
The latest addition to this list of prominent global families or their relatives living in India comes from Joe Biden, who, according to the American media, has been chosen as the 46th President-elect of the United States last week.
Joe Biden’s running Vice-Presidential mate was Indian-American Kamala Harris, who was also declared elected. She has roots in India’s Tamil Nadu.
In 2013, when Biden was Vice-President in the Barack Obama Administration, he had, during his India visit, referred to some of his ‘distant relatives’ living in Mumbai. In 2015, he spoke of them, again, in Washington.
It has turned out that some of them have been living in Nagpur city since 1873, according to media reports.
The Bidens’ India connection came to light when, speaking at the Bombay Stock Exchange on July 24, 2013, Joe Biden said that one of the first letters he received after his election as a Senator in 1972 was from India, which he could not follow up.
“Maybe, some genealogist in the audience can follow it up for me, but I received a letter from a gentleman named Biden – Biden, my name – from Mumbai, asserting that we were related.”
In another of his speech in Washington in 2015, Biden referred to his “great, great, great, great, great grandfather” George Biden, a Captain in the East India Trading Company, who, after retirement, decided to settle in India and also married an Indian woman.
“There are five Bidens in Mumbai, India,” Biden told the audience, adding he also had their phone numbers.
The said letter was apparently sent by Nagpur-based Leslie Biden, whose grandchildren still stay in the orange city, and claim their family has been living there since 1873.
Leslie was the manager of a lodge and hotel and a café. He passed away in 1983.
Leslie’s granddaughter Sonia Biden Francis, a psychologist, said that the ‘Bidens in Nagpur and everywhere’ are elated with Joe Biden’s victory in the US presidential election.
Asked how did Leslie come in touch with Joe Biden, she said her grandfather got information about the then US Senator in an article carried by a weekly in 1981. Leslie wrote to Joe Biden in April 1981, who replied back in May 1981, expressing his happiness and also discussed the Bidens’ genealogy.
Sonia’s elder brother Ian Biden (44), who also stays in Nagpur, said Leslie and Joe Biden shared information about a common ancestor John Biden and his wife Anne Beaumont.
After Leslie’s death in 1983, his wife could not pursue the family tree further. But the Biden family claims to have preserved the correspondence letters between Leslie and Joe Biden.
The Nagpur Bidens have extended their best wishes to Joe Biden for his Inauguration in January 2021.
“The Bidens of Nagpur, Mumbai, New Zealand, and the US gathered in January 2018 for the wedding of Leslie’s grandson Leslie David Biden,” Sonia said.
Leslie Biden’s descendants live in Nagpur, Mumbai, the US, Australia, and New Zealand.