Who are America's First and Second families? Meet the Bidens and the Harrises

As President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were sworn into power this week, everybody wants to know more about who's in charge of the US – and who they're related to.

Here, we break down a brief family history of the new First and Second families.

The Bidens

Joseph Robinette Biden Jr, the 46th President of the US, was born in 1942 to parents Catherine Eugenia and Joseph Robinette Sr. The oldest of four siblings, Joe, 78, was raised in the blue-collar city of Scranton, Pennsylvania, and worked briefly as an attorney before entering the political arena.

Before that happened, however, he fell in love. During his junior year at the University of Delaware, he met Neilia Hunter. As he graduated in 1965 from the University of Delaware, where he studied history and political science, Biden was accepted into Syracuse University Law School, and the following year married Hunter.

Learn more about the Biden family in the gallery below:

US President Joe Biden, with his wife Jill Biden and members of his family as they salute the crowd on stage after delivering remarks in Wilmington, Delaware, on November 7, 2020. AFP

The pair went on to have three children: Joseph "Beau", who was born in 1969; Robert "Hunter", born in 1970; and Naomi "Amy", born in 1971.

Biden was elected as a Delaware Senator aged 29, one of the youngest senators in American history, before tragedy struck, as his wife and youngest child were killed in a car accident.

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Beau and Hunter, who were also in the vehicle, were seriously injured, and so Biden skipped the swearing-in ceremony for new senators, taking the oath of office from his sons' hospital room instead.

In 1977, as Biden was still working in the Senate, he married Jill, nee Jacobs. Four years later, in 1981, the couple had a child, Ashley.

As Biden's career has gone strength to strength, his family has continued to expand, with his sons having children of their own. Beau Biden had two children, Natalie and Hunter.

Hunter Biden has three daughters – Naomi, Finnegan and Maisy – with his first wife Kathleen, fathered another son called Lunden Roberts, and recently had another boy with his second wife, Melissa.

They called him Beau, after Hunter's brother, who tragically died in 2015 of brain cancer.

The Harrises

Vice President Kamala Harris – the first woman, black and Asian-American to ever take up the role – also has a sprawling, blended family backing her.

Kamala Devis Harris, 56, was born in Oakland, California, to Shyamala Gopalan and Donald J Harris. Her mother, who had emigrated from Tamil Nadu in India in 1958, was a breast cancer scientist, while her father, who arrived in the US from Jamaica in 1961, is a professor at Stanford University.

See more of the Harris clan here: