Biden from Chennai

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It was probably due to Kamala Harris, the US Vice President-elect, having the Indian origin, there arose an interest to discover the Indian connections of Joe Biden, the US President-elect. Ever since his victory was declared, the interest has grown multi-fold.

It all started when Joe Biden claimed in 2013 that he descended from George Biden, a captain of East India Company. Later, in 2015, he mentioned that there were five people in Mumbai having "Biden" as their surnames.



Who was this George Biden? Do we have any record of him? To my knowledge, no record has been discovered yet. What was the basis for Joe Biden's claim? We don't know. However, interestingly, there was a Biden who lived in Chennai.

It was Christopher Biden, who served as a Captain in the East India Company. He lived in Madras (Chennai) for 19 years and died on 25th February 1858, at the age of 68. St. George's Cathedral of Chennai has a memorial plaque for him. Also, he was buried in the church cemetery.

Was he somehow connected to Joe Biden? We don't know. However, as I understand, the Cathedral has unusually got a large number of visitors in the last one week, due to this plaque of Christopher Biden.

Happy travelling. 

Location: Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

Comments

  1. venkatesh ramakrishnanThursday, November 12, 2020

    joe is catholic. his reported anscestor seems tohave been a protestant

    ReplyDelete

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