Roosevelt family

Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt and family in 1903.
Ethnicity Dutch American Current region New York, United States of America
Information
Earlier spellings	Van Rosenvelt and Van Rosevelt
Place of origin	The Netherlands
Notable members	Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt
Connected families	Delano family Du Pont Family Astor family Alsop family Arnold family Longworth family
Estate	Sagamore Hill and Top Cottage
Name origin and meaning	"From the rose field."

The Roosevelt family is a prominent American business and political family of Dutch descent whose members include United States Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin D. Roosevelt and a First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt.

History

Claes Maartenszen van Rosenvelt, the immigrant ancestor of the Roosevelt family, arrived in Nieuw Amsterdam (present day New York City) sometime between 1638 and 1649. Around the year 1652, he bought a farm from Lambert van Valckenburgh comprised of twenty-four morgens (forty-eight acres) in what is now Midtown Manhattan, including the present site of the Empire State Building.^[1] The property included roughly what is now the area between Lexington Avenue and 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.

Possible European origin

In 1410, William III, Duke of Bavaria, Count of Holland and of Zeeland granted amt fiefdoms north of Tholen to six lords. An amt fief was a grant of land, by William III of Bavaria in this instance, to lesser vassal lords where the land stipulated in the grant had been or needed to be dyked and reclaimed from the sea. Also, the vassal lords held several powers from their position, such as appointing the steward and alderman that governed the municipal area, inflicting corporal punishment and even pass death sentences by hanging in several situations.^[2][3]

One of the first amt lords was Marijnus van Rosevelt, whose lordship dates back to 1697. Johan Willem van Rosevelt, LL.M, was also an amt lord from 1731 until 1790, and also held the prominent positions of steward of Vossemeer, councilor, alderman and pensionary of Goes, Steward of the Count's Domains to oversee clerical goods, common means and taxes in Biervliet, deputy councilor of Zeeland and admiralty councilor. The Van Rosevelt name holds a place of prominence in the Oud-Vossemeer House of Amt Lords, which was constructed in 1767, even amongst the other amt lords.^[4][2]

It has been suggested that Claes van Rosenvelt was related to the Van Rosevelts of Oud-Vossemeer, and evidence suggests that Claes van Rosenvelt indeed came from the Tholen region where the Van Rosevelts were land owners, but no records exist that prove any relation of the two families.^[4][5]

Coats of arms

The coat of arms of the New York Roosevelt family.

The arms of the Van Rosevelts of Oud-Vossemeer.

It is a common misconception that there is one coat of arms associated to everyone of a common surname, when, in fact, a coat of arms is property passed through direct lineage.^[6] This means that there are numerous families of Roosevelt, perhaps under various spellings, that are related, but because they are not the direct descendants of a Roosevelt that owned an armorial device do not have rights or claims to any arms themselves.

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. ^[7]

The coat of arms of the Dutch burgher Claes van Rosenvelt, ancestor of the American political family that included Theodore and Franklin 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 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 it‘s 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.^[7]

Members

• 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^[8]

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), m. Maria Van Schaak, founder of the Bank of New York

• James I. Roosevelt (1795-1875), politician, businessman and jurist
• Cornelius Roosevelt (1794-1871)

• Silas Weir Roosevelt (1823-1870)

• Cornelius Roosevelt (1847-1902), m. Anastacia Anderpoll

• Andre Roosevelt (1879-1962), m. Adelheid Lange, film director
• 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 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), superintendent of the Pittsburgh Public Schools

• Joseph Willard Roosevelt (1918-2008), pianist and composer

• Ethel Roosevelt (1891-1977), m. Richard Derby
• Archibald Roosevelt (1894-1979), m. Grace Lockwood

• 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

• Anna Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962), m. Franklin Delano Roosevelt
• Elliot 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

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 Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945), m. Anna 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. James Addison

• 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

• 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

References

Further reading

• Cobb, William T. (1946). The Strenuous Life: The Oyster Bay Roosevelts in Business and Finance. William E. Rudge's Sons. 
• Collier, Peter; David Horowitz (1994). The Roosevelts: An American Saga. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-671-65225-7. 
• Hubert, Philip G. (1903). The Merchants' National Bank of the City of New York. http://books.google.com/books?id=YGT55bJdwyoC. 
• Schriftgiesser, Karl (1942). The Amazing Roosevelt Family, 1613-1942. Wildred Funk, Inc.. 
• Scoville, Joseph A. (1863). The Old Merchants of New York City. New York, NY: Carlton. http://books.google.com/books?id=V0k5AAAAMAAJ. 
• Whittelsey, Charles B. (1902). The Roosevelt Genealogy, 1649-1902.