Genealogy of Sen. Joe Biden

Something I always find interesting is looking at the family history of key political figures and celebrities. Sometimes it even leads you to a link to your own family, as I found myself a distant relative of actor Johnny Depp. My girlfriend has far more famous distant relatives, including Sen. Barack Obama, Pres. George W. Bush, Lucille Ball, and Bob Barker, though she has many more colonial American lines than I do.

Regardless of your political views, today is Sen. Joe Biden's day, as he was named Sen. Obama's running mate on the Democratic ticket. I thought I'd look at his family history. I compiled a quick pedigree of his ancestors from several online sources, including databases I have access to, and came up with as much of as his ancestry as possible. When Sen. McCain names his VP, I'll do the same, so there is no bias in this blog!

So, here's what I found on Sen. Biden's family history. I found 48 total ancestors for him (and created a GEDCOM if anyone's interested). His father's side was from Allegany Co., MD and his mother's from Lackawanna Co., PA. He seems to have some roots in NY and VA too but further back. Surnames on his father's side: Biden, Elkins, Johnson, Pumphrey, Randall, Robinette, Shoemaker, Taylor, Wilson. Mostly English, a little German. On his mother's side: Blewitt, Finnegan, Scanlon, Stanton. Mostly Irish.

Emigrants he descends of that I was able to link back to are William Biden (born abt. 1790 Sussex, England), Samuel Robinett (b. 1669 Cheshire, England), Valentine Johnson (b. abt 1670 England), and Patrick Blewitt (b. 1830 Ireland). The first three settled in MD, the last in PA.

Here's the pedigree I came up with for him (six-generation chart):

Sources I used include William Addams Reitwiesner Genealogical Services, GEDview, census records, and family trees submitted to WorldConnect RootsWeb.