The Roosevelt family is a prominent American business and political family whose members include United States Presidents Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. The Roosevelts were among the earliest to settle in the Dutch colonial settlement of New Amsterdam, in what would later become New York.

 

History

Van Rosevelts of Oud-Vossemeer

It has been suggested that Claes van Rosenvelt could have been related to the Van Rosevelts of Oud-Vossemeer, who were amt lords in the Tholen region of the Netherlands. While evidence suggests that Claes van Rosenvelt, the ancestor to the American Roosevelt family, indeed came from the Tholen region where the Van Rosevelts were land owners, no records exist that prove that he is related to the noble family. It may simply be a coincidence, or Claes van Rosenvelt may have chosen the name purposely because of its noble origins or to honour his local amt lord, as was common practice for peasants of the time.

 

Claes van Rosenvelt

Claes Maartenszen van Rosenvelt, the immigrant ancestor of the Roosevelt family, arrived in Nieuw Amsterdam (present day New York City) some time between 1638 and 1649. Around the year 1652, he bought a farm from Lambert van Valckenburgh comprising twenty-four morgens (forty-eight acres) in what is nowMidtown Manhattan, including the present site of the Empire State Building.The property included roughly what is now the area between Lexington Avenueand Fifth Avenue bounded by 29th St. and 35th St.

 

Claes' son Nicholas was the first to use the spelling Roosevelt and the first to hold political office, as an alderman. His children Johannes and Jacobus were the progenitors of the Oyster Bay and Hyde Park branches of the family that emerged in the 18th century, respectively. By the late 19th century, the Hyde Park Roosevelts were generally associated with the Democratic Party and the Oyster Bay Roosevelts with the Republican Party. President Theodore Roosevelt, an Oyster Bay Roosevelt, was President Franklin Roosevelt's fifth cousin. Despite political differences that led family members to actively campaign against each other, the two branches generally remained friendly. James Roosevelt, Sr. met his wife at a Roosevelt family gathering in the home of Theodore's mother, and James' son Franklin married Theodore's niece Eleanor.

 

The Roosevelt Family is generally associated with the state of New York. Harvard University educations have been common among many members of the Roosevelt Family.

 

Possible Jewish ancestors

In an interview published in the February 8, 1934 edition of the St. Petersburg Times of Florida, the former governor of Michigan, Chase Osborn, a friend of both Theodore and Franklin D. Roosevelt, provided detailed information of alleged Jewish origins of the entire Roosevelt family, claiming they were descendants of "the Rossacampo family expelled from Spain in 1620", some of whom settled in Holland where most, but not all, had converted to Christianity.This story was picked up by other parts of the media, particularly Philip Slomovitz the editor of Detroit Jewish Chronicle, who wrote to President Roosevelt on March 4, 1935 advising him of the claims. Roosevelt's response dated March 7, 1935, which was soon republished in many other newspapers across the country, states that he has no knowledge of any Jewish ancestors in his family.

 

In 1981 further details of this affair came to light when Philip Slomovitz published a collection of his personal correspondence compiled in the six decades he worked as a journalist. In his book Purely Commentary, Slomovitz reproduces three letters written in March and early April 1935, from Chase Osborn defending his claim, Osborn wrote in the first of the letters: "President Roosevelt knows well enough that his ancestors were Jewish. I heard Theodore Roosevelt state twice that his ancestors were Jewish. Once was to me when I asked him about it after he had made a pleasing euphemistic statement in a speech to a Jewish gathering." Another letter reproduced in Slomovitz's book is dated March 27, 1935 and from Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, who had been a very close confidant of the Roosevelt government. Wise asked Slomovitz, to let the matter of Roosevelt's alleged Jewish origins "die down", and instructed him not to make use of this information, but states that Eleanor Roosevelt, the President's wife and distant relation, had stated at a luncheon party in his home that: "often Cousin Alice and I say that all the brains in the Roosevelt family comes from our Jewish great-grandmother." Rabbi Wise also alludes that Franklin D. Roosevelt was aware of his Jewish ancestors but had claimed ignorance in his published letter, due to the consequences of this fact being used by antisemites, particularly the new Nazi government in Germany.

 

Coats of arms

The coat of arms of Franklin D. Roosevelt
Information
Date of origin	17th century
Shield	Three roses one in pale and two in saltire gules barbed seeded slipped and leaved proper.
Crest and mantle	Upon a torse argent and gules,Three ostrich plumes each per pale gules and argent, the mantling gules doubled argent

 

In heraldry, canting arms are a visual or pictorial play on a surname, and were and still are a popular practice. It would be common to find roses, then, in arms of many Roosevelt families, even unrelated ones. Also, grassy mounds or fields of green would be a familiar attribute.

 

The Van Rosevelts of Oud-Vossemeer in Zeeland have a coat of arms that is divided horizontally, the top portion with a white chevron between three white roses, while the bottom half is gold with a red lion rampant. A traditional blazon suggested would be, Per fess vert a chevron between three roses argent and Or a lion rampant gules.

 

The coat of arms of the namesakes of the Dutch immigrant Claes van Rosenvelt, ancestor of the American political family that included Theodore andFranklin D. Roosevelt, were white with a rosebush with three rose flowers growing upon a grassy mound, and whose crest was of three ostrich feathers divided into red and white halves each. In heraldic terms this would be described as, Argent upon a grassy mound a rose bush proper bearing three roses gules barbed and seeded all proper, with a crest upon a torse argent and gules of Three ostrich plumes each per pale gules and argent. Franklin Roosevelt altered his arms to rid of the rosebush and use in its place three crossed roses on their stems, changing the blazon of his shield to Three roses one in pale and two in saltire gules barbed seeded slipped and leaved proper.

 

Family tree

Claes Maartenszen van Rosenvelt emigrated to America c. 1649 (died 1659)

Nicholas Roosevelt (1658–1742)

Johannes Roosevelt Oyster Bay branch (1689–1750)

Jacobus Roosevelt Hyde Park branch (1692–1776)

Jacobus Roosevelt (1724–1777)

Isaac Roosevelt (1726–1794)

James Roosevelt (1759–1840)

James Roosevelt (1760–1847)

Cornelius Roosevelt (1794–1871)

Isaac Roosevelt (1790–1863)

Theodore Roosevelt, Sr. (1831–1878)

James Roosevelt (1828–1900)

Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919)

Elliott Roosevelt (1860–1894)

Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962)

Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)

Anna Roosevelt Halsted (1906–1975)

James Roosevelt (1907–1991)

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Jr. I (1909–1909)

Elliott RooseveltII (1910–1990)

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Jr. II (1914–1988)

John Aspinwall Roosevelt (1916–1981)

Franklin Delano Roosevelt III (b. 1938)

 

Members

For an alphabetical list of people with the surname Roosevelt, see Roosevelt (surname).

 

 Nicholas Roosevelt (b. 1687), goldsmith

 Nicholas Roosevelt (b. c. 1715), militia first lieutenant in the American Revolutionary War

 Nicholas Roosevelt (b. 1758), member of the New York Assembly from Warren County

 

Oyster Bay Roosevelts

 Johannes Roosevelt (1689–1750), head of the Oyster Bay branch

 Nicholas Roosevelt (b. 1717), merchant

 Nicholas Roosevelt (b. 1747)

 Cornelius Roosevelt (b. 1731), New York City alderman

 Elbert Roosevelt (1767–1857)

 Clinton Roosevelt (1804–1898), pro-labor economic reformer of the Democratic Party

 Jacobus Roosevelt (1724–1777)

 Nicholas Roosevelt (1767–1854)

 Samuel Roosevelt (1813–1878)

 Nicholas Latrobe Roosevelt (1847–1892)

 Henry Latrobe Roosevelt (1879–1936), Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Navy

 Samuel Montgomery Roosevelt (1858–1920), noted portrait painter

 Jacobus "James" Roosevelt (1759–1840), founder of the Bank of New York, m. Maria Van Schaak

 Cornelius Roosevelt (1794–1871)

 Silas Weir Roosevelt (1823–1870)

 Cornelius Roosevelt (1847–1902), m. Anais Julia Carmencita Piorkque (1848–1941), m. Anastacia Anderpoll (1879–1962)

 Andre Roosevelt (1879–1962), film director, m. Adelheid Lange (1879–1962), sculptress

 Hilda Roosevelt (dates unknown), Parisian opera singer

 Hilborne Roosevelt, (1849–1886), pioneering organ builder

 James West Roosevelt, (1858–1896), physician

 Nicholas Roosevelt (1893–1982), American diplomat and journalist

 James Alfred Roosevelt (1825–1898), banker

 William Emlen Roosevelt (1857–1930), banker and telegraph executive

 George Emlen Roosevelt (1887–1963), banker and philanthropist

 Julian Roosevelt (1924–1986), Olympic gold medalist and IOC member

 Philip James Roosevelt (1892–1941), U.S. Army captain during World War I and banker

 Philip James Roosevelt, Jr. (1928–1998), investment counselor

 Robert Barnwell Roosevelt (1829–1906), conservationist

 Theodore Roosevelt, Sr. (1831–1878), m. Martha "Mittie" Bulloch

 Anna "Bamie" Roosevelt (1855–1931), m. William S. Cowles

 Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919), m. Alice Hathaway Lee, m. Edith Kermit Carow, career politician, Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Navy, Governor of New York, Vice-President of the United States of America, and President of the United States of America

 Alice Lee Roosevelt (1884–1980), m. Nicholas Longworth

 Paulina Longworth (1925–1957)

 Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. (1887–1944), m. Eleanor Butler Alexander

 Theodore Roosevelt III (1914–2001), m. Anne Mason Babcock

 Theodore Roosevelt IV (b. 1942), m. Constance Lane Rogers

 Theodore Roosevelt V (b. 1976), m. Serena Clare Torrey

 Cornelius V.S. Roosevelt (1915–1991)

 Quentin Roosevelt II (1919–1948)

 Susan Roosevelt, m. William Weld

 Kermit Roosevelt (1889–1943), m. Belle Wyatt Willard

 Kermit Roosevelt, Jr. (1916–2000), m. Mary Lowe Gaddis

 Kermit Roosevelt, Jr.

 Kermit Roosevelt III (b. 1971)

 Mark Roosevelt (b. 1955), President of Antioch College

 Joseph Willard Roosevelt (1918–2008), pianist and composer

 Ethel Roosevelt (1891–1977), m. Richard Derby

 Archibald Roosevelt (1894–1979), m. Grace Lockwood, municipal bond broker

 Archibald Bulloch Roosevelt, Jr. (1918–1990), m. Katherine Tweed, CIA officer

 Tweed Roosevelt (b. 1942), businessman

 Quentin Roosevelt (1897–1918)

 Elliott Roosevelt (1860–1894), m. Anna Hall

 Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962), politician, First Lady of the United States, delegate to the United Nations, m. Franklin Delano Roosevelt

 Elliott Roosevelt, Jr. (1889–1893)

 Gracie Hall Roosevelt (1891–1941), m. Margaret Richardson, m. Dorothy Kemp

 Corinne Roosevelt (1861–1933), m. Douglas Robinson, poet, lecturer, and orator

 Corinne Douglas Robinson (1886–1971), twice elected to the Connecticut House of Representatives

 Joseph Wright Alsop V (1910–1989), American journalist and syndicated newspaper columnist

 Stewart Johonnot Oliver Alsop (1914–1974), American newspaper columnist and political analyst

 James I. Roosevelt (1795–1875), politician, businessman and jurist

 William Henry Roosevelt (1806–1869), politician, land speculator (Illinois)

[edit]Hyde Park Roosevelts

 James Jacobus Roosevelt (1692–1776), m. Catharina Hardenbroek, head of the Hyde Park branch

 Helena Roosevelt (1719–1772), m. Andrew Barclay

 Christopher Roosevelt (b. 1739)

 James Christopher Roosevelt (1770)

 James Henry Roosevelt (1800–1863), founder of the Roosevelt Hospital

 Isaac Roosevelt (1726–1794), merchant, co-founder of the Bank of New York, Federalist politician, served in the New York State Assembly and the New York Constitutional Convention

 James Roosevelt (1760–1847)

 Grace Roosevelt, m. Guy Carleton Bayley (himself a grandson of Andrew Barclay and Helena Roosevelt)

 James Roosevelt Bayley (1814–1877), Bishop of Newark and Archbishop of Baltimore

 Isaac Roosevelt (1790–1863) m. Mary Rebecca Aspinwall

 James Roosevelt, Sr. (1828–1900), m. Rebecca Howland, m. Sara Delano

 James "Rosy" Roosevelt, Jr. (1854–1927) m. Helen Schermerhorn Astor

 Tadd Roosevelt (1879–1958)

 Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945), m. Eleanor Roosevelt, career politician, Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Navy, Governor of New York and President of the United States of America

 Anna Eleanor Roosevelt (1906–1975), m. Curtis Bean Dall, m. Clarence John Boettiger, m. Dr. James Addison Halsted

 Anna Eleanor Dall (b. 1927)

 Curtis Roosevelt Dall (b. 1930)

 John Roosevelt Boettiger (b. 1939)

 James Roosevelt (1907–1991), m. Betsy Cushing

 Sara Delano Roosevelt, (b. 1932)

 James Roosevelt, Jr. (b. 1945), attorney and Democratic Party official

 Elliott Roosevelt (1910–1990)

 William Donner Roosevelt (1931–2003), investment banker and philanthropist

 Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jr. (1914–1988), m. Ethel du Pont

 Franklin Delano Roosevelt III (b. 1938), m. Grace R. Goodyear, economist

 Phoebe Louisa Roosevelt (b. 1965)

 Nicholas Martin Roosevelt (b. 1966)

 Amelia Roosevelt (b. 1966)

 Christopher du Pont Roosevelt (b. 1941) m. Rosalind Havemeyer and lawyer and member of Roosevelt Campobello International Park Commission

 Christopher Havermeyer Roosevelt (b. 1972)

 Emily Roosevelt (b. 1969)

 Kate Roosevelt (b. 1969)

 John Aspinwall Roosevelt (1916–1981), m. Anne Lindsay Clark

 John Aspinwall Roosevelt (1840–1909), m. Ellen Murray Crosby

 Ellen Crosby Roosevelt (1868–1954), tennis champion