The Roosevelt family is an American political family from New York whose members have included two United States presidents, a First Lady,[1] and various merchants, bankers, politicians, inventors, clergymen, artists, and socialites. The progeny of a mid-17th century Dutch immigrant to New Amsterdam, many members of the family became nationally prominent in New York State and City politics and business and intermarried with prominent colonial families. Two distantly related branches of the family from Oyster Bay and Hyde Park, New York, rose to global political prominence with the presidencies of Theodore Roosevelt (1901–1909) and his fifth cousin Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933–1945), whose wife, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, was Theodore's niece. The Roosevelt family is one of four families to have produced two presidents of the United States by the same surname; the others were the Adams, Bush, and Harrison families.
Claes Maartenszen van Rosenvelt (c. 1626–1659), the immigrant ancestor of the Roosevelt family, arrived in New Amsterdam (present-day New York City) sometime between 1638 and 1649. About the year 1652, he bought a farm from Lambert van Valckenburgh, comprising 24 morgens (i.e., 20.44 ha or 50.51 acres) in what is now Midtown Manhattan, including the present site of the Empire State Building.[2] The property included approximately what is now the area between Lexington Avenue and Fifth Avenue bounded by 29th St. and 35th St.[citation needed]
Claes van Rosenvelt's son Nicholas was the first to use the spelling Roosevelt and the first to hold political office, as an alderman. His sons Johannes and Jacobus were, respectively, the progenitors of the Oyster Bay and Hyde Park branches of the family. By the late 19th century, the Hyde Park Roosevelts were generally associated with the Democratic Party and the Oyster Bay Roosevelts with the Republicans. President Theodore Roosevelt, an Oyster Bay Roosevelt, was the uncle of Eleanor Roosevelt, later wife of Franklin Roosevelt. Despite political differences that caused family members to actively campaign against each other, the two branches generally remained friendly.
The Roosevelt arms feature a rose bush in reference to the name: "Roosevelt", which is Dutch for "rose field",[4] making these an example of canting arms.
In heraldry, canting arms are a visual or pictorial depiction of a surname, and were and still are a popular practice. It would be common to find roses, then, in the arms of many Roosevelt families, even unrelated ones (the name Rosenvelt means "rose field"). Also, grassy mounds or fields of green would be a familiar attribute.
The Van Roosevelts 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.[3]
The coat of arms of the namesakes of the Dutch immigrant 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 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 omit 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 left proper.[3]
Membersedit
Roosevelt family members
Claes Martenszen van Rosenvelt (1623–1660), m. Jannetje Samuels Thomas (1625–1660)[5]
Elsie Roosevelt (bap. 1652–1703), m. Hendrick Meyer, New York City assistant alderman[5]: 4–5
Nicholas Roosevelt (bap. 1740), New York City alderman
Cornelius Roosevelt (b. 1731), chocolate maker,[8] New York City alderman
Cornelius C. Roosevelt (bap. 1755), merchant, New York City alderman, member of the New York State Assembly, m. Alida Fargie, granddaughter of Albany and New York City mayor Edward Holland
Maria Roosevelt (1760–1821), m. John Duffie
Matilda Duffie, m. Gerard De Peyster, New York City alderman
Helene Whitney (1914–1990) (born Kenyon Fortescue), 1930s and 1940s film actress, m. Julian Louis Reynolds, son of Richard S. Reynolds Sr. and heir to the Reynolds tobacco and aluminum fortunes
Elliott Roosevelt Sr. (1910–1990), United States Army Air Forces officer and author, m. 1st Emily Browning Donner, daughter of businessman William Donner, m. 2nd Ruth Josephine Googins, m. 3rd Faye Margaret Emerson, m. 4th Minnewa Bell, m. 5th Patricia Peabody
William Donner Roosevelt (1932–2003), investment banker and philanthropist
Livingston Delano Roosevelt (b. 1962, died as an infant)
Franklin Delano Roosevelt Jr., lawyer, politician, and businessman (1914–1988), m. 1st Ethel du Pont, m. 2nd Suzanne Perrin, m. 3rd Felicia Schiff Warburg Sarnoff, m. 4th Patricia Luisa Oakes, m. 5th Linda McKay Stevenson Weicker
^Moore, Frazier (September 10, 2014). "PBS' 'The Roosevelts' portrays an epic threesome". AP News. Retrieved September 10, 2014.
^"Lambert Jochemse van Valckenburch of New Amsterdam". VanValkenburg.org. Archived from the original on October 7, 2007. Retrieved February 28, 2008.
^ abcde"Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 26th and 32nd Presidents of the United States". American Heraldry Society. Archived from the original on December 30, 2008. Retrieved October 28, 2009.
^McMillan, Joseph (October 1, 2010), Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 26th and 32nd Presidents of the United States, American Heraldry Society, archived from the original on December 30, 2008
^ abcdefghijklmnoWhittelsey, Charles (1902). The Roosevelt Genealogy, 1649–1902. Hartford, Conn., Press of J. B. Burr & co.
^Hough, Franklin B. (1858). The New York civil list. Albany, NY: Weed, Parsons & Co. p. 300. Retrieved November 27, 2009. editions:LCCN93004831.
^"The Political Graveyard: Index to Politicians: Roosevelt".
^Genealogical and Biographical Notes: Haring-Herring, Clark, Denton, White, Griggs, Judd, and Related Families. Peter Haring Judd. 2005. ISBN 978-0-88082-190-2.
^"Historic Pelham: Elbert Roosevelt, An Early Settler of the Manor of Pelham, and Other Members of His Family". historicpelham.blogspot.com. Retrieved May 2, 2016.
^Theodore Roosevelt Association (1990). Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal. The Association.
^Frances M. Smith (1909). Colonial Families of America. F. Allaben genealogical Company. p. 258.
^"Emily Allen, Samuel Hornblower". The New York Times. June 13, 2009. Retrieved February 26, 2018.
^Berger, Joseph (March 16, 2005). "Roosevelts and the Quirks of Destiny". The New York Times.
^John Lippert; Jim Efstathiou Jr.; Mike Lee (April 1, 2013). "Republican Born Roosevelt Digs Deep for Texas Oil Found With CO2". Bloomberg Markets Magazine. Retrieved April 2, 2013.
^ ab"Appleton LeSure Clark 1865-1930 - Ancestry®".
^Wallack, Todd (December 20, 2011). "Which bank is the oldest? Accounts vary - The Boston Globe". Boston Globe.
^Chemical Bank and Trust Company (1913). History of the Chemical Bank, 1823-1913. Garden City, New York: The Country Life Press. p. 109.
^Mcquiston, John T. (August 18, 1988). "Franklin Roosevelt Jr., 74, Ex-Congressman, Dies". The New York Times. Retrieved June 20, 2023.
^"Tweed Roosevelt". WHHA (en-US). Retrieved June 19, 2023.
Further readingedit
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. bank.
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: Carlton.
Whittelsey, Charles B. (1902). The Roosevelt Genealogy, 1649–1902. Press of J.B. Burr & Company.
External linksedit
Booknotes interview with Peter Collier on The Roosevelts: An American Saga, August 7, 1994.
Booknotes interview with Betty Boyd Caroli on The Roosevelt Women, May 9, 1999.
Booknotes interview with Susan Dunn on The Three Roosevelts: Patrician Leaders Who Transformed America, May 6, 2001.