Basic Information
| Field | Detail |
|---|---|
| Name | Mary Elizabeth Robinette Biden |
| Born | 18 November 1894 |
| Died | 23 April 1943 |
| Parents | George Hamilton Robinette; Mary A. (Hanafy) Robinette |
| Spouse | Joseph Harry Biden; married 27 November 1914 |
| Children | Joseph Robinette Biden Sr. (b. 13 November 1915); Mary Alice Biden (c. 1917); Frank or Francis Biden (c. 1918) |
| Notable descendants | Joseph R. Biden Jr. (grandson, born 1942); Valerie Biden Owens (granddaughter); James Brian Biden (grandson); Beau Biden and Hunter Biden (great-grandchildren) |
| Occupation | No public professional record; recorded in family documents as spouse and mother |
| Last known residence | Newton, Massachusetts |
| Death place | Newton, Middlesex County, Massachusetts |
| Burial | Cemetery memorials record interment in Massachusetts |
Family and Personal Relationships
The story of Mary Elizabeth Robinette Biden reads like a tree whose trunk anchors many branches. Below is a compact introduction to the main figures who define her family web.
| Relation | Name | Short introduction |
|---|---|---|
| Father | George Hamilton Robinette | Born 3 October 1844; patriarch of the Robinette line that moved through Maryland and surrounding states. |
| Mother | Mary A. (Hanafy) Robinette | Born about 1862; recorded as George H. Robinette’s spouse and Mary Elizabeth’s mother. |
| Paternal grandfather | Moses J. Robinette | Ancestral figure dating to the early 19th century; connected to a thread of family history that drew public interest in recent years. |
| Paternal grandmother | Jane Eliza Pumphrey | Listed in family records as Moses J. Robinette’s spouse and part of the older Robinette generation. |
| Spouse | Joseph Harry Biden | Born 14 June 1893, died 26 September 1941; married Mary Elizabeth on 27 November 1914 and raised a family in the northeastern United States. |
| Son | Joseph Robinette Biden Sr. | Born 13 November 1915; father of Joseph R. Biden Jr., the future public figure who became a prominent part of the family story. |
| Daughter | Mary Alice Biden | Born circa 1917; recorded in multiple family listings as a daughter who carried the household line forward. |
| Son | Frank / Francis Biden | Born circa 1918; appears in family registers as another child of Mary Elizabeth and Joseph Harry Biden. |
| Grandchildren | Joseph R. Biden Jr., Valerie Biden Owens, James Brian Biden and others | The next generation includes political and civic figures; they are the visible branches that bring attention to the family trunk. |
| Great-grandchildren | Beau Biden, Hunter Biden, Naomi Christina Biden and others | The family line continues into modern generations with public profiles and private lives that are part of the larger American story. |
The relationships are steady facts in civil registers and family trees. Mary Elizabeth herself moves through these names as the connective tissue, the generational hinge between 19th century roots and the public presence of later generations.
Career, Financial Context, and Public Role
According to official data, Mary Elizabeth Robinette Biden does not have a named profession. According to the materials that are currently available, she was a wife, mother, housewife, and custodian of family continuity—roles that were typical for many women in her time. That small task yielded enormous impact; raising a son in 1915 meant influencing the family that would generate nationally recognizable individuals two generations later.
According to family accounts, her husband, Joseph Harry Biden, was involved in the business world of his day, and the household was in the working-to-middle-class economic range that was typical of American families in the early 20th century. Although wealth and prestige fluctuated across generations like a weather vane, Mary Elizabeth’s public invisibility should not be interpreted as a lack of influence. She supplied the roots for the growth of subsequent branches.
Recent Attention and Legacy
The Robinette line attracted renewed attention in the 2020s when archival discoveries and historical curiosity illuminated episodes deep in the 19th century. Those ripples reached back along the family trunk and refreshed interest in Mary Elizabeth as one node in a long chain. In that way she stands as both a private figure and a hinge between eras.
Legacy here is not a medal or a headline. It is a pattern of names and dates, a ledger of births, marriages, and deaths that together tell a story about continuity. Her life spans precise numbers: birth in 1894, marriage in 1914, death in 1943. Those numbers are the anchors that allow historians and family historians to tether memory to a calendar.
Timeline
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| c. 1819 | Birth of earlier ancestor Moses J. Robinette, seed of the Robinette family line. |
| 3 Oct 1844 | Birth of George Hamilton Robinette, Mary Elizabeth’s father. |
| 18 Nov 1894 | Birth of Mary Elizabeth Robinette in Baltimore, Maryland. |
| 14 Jun 1893 | Birth of Joseph Harry Biden, future spouse. |
| 27 Nov 1914 | Marriage of Mary Elizabeth Robinette and Joseph Harry Biden. |
| 13 Nov 1915 | Birth of Joseph Robinette Biden Sr., their eldest son. |
| c. 1917 | Birth of daughter Mary Alice Biden. |
| c. 1918 | Birth of son Frank or Francis Biden. |
| 26 Sep 1941 | Death of Joseph Harry Biden, husband. |
| 23 Apr 1943 | Death of Mary Elizabeth Robinette Biden in Newton, Massachusetts. |
| 1942 and later | Grandchildren and great-grandchildren are born, including Joseph R. Biden Jr., whose public life pulls the family story into national view. |
The timeline reads like a spine with vertebrae of dates. Each vertebra holds a generation, and each generation shapes the posture of the next.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who was Mary Elizabeth Robinette Biden?
Mary Elizabeth Robinette Biden was born on 18 November 1894 and is recorded as the wife of Joseph Harry Biden and the mother of Joseph Robinette Biden Sr.
Is she related to President Joseph R. Biden Jr?
Yes, she is the grandmother of Joseph R. Biden Jr., the later public figure born in 1942.
What were her parents names?
Her parents are recorded as George Hamilton Robinette and Mary A. Hanafy Robinette.
Did Mary Elizabeth have a public career?
No public record lists a professional occupation for Mary Elizabeth; family records identify her primarily as spouse and mother.
When did she marry and to whom?
She married Joseph Harry Biden on 27 November 1914.
When did she die and where?
She died on 23 April 1943 in Newton, Middlesex County, Massachusetts.
