Roosevelt family

Roosevelt
The Roosevelt family in 1903
Current region	New York and New England
Earlier spellings	Rosevelt, van Rosenvelt, van Rosevelt
Etymology	Dutch for "Rose field"
Place of origin	Netherlands England
Connected families	Delano family Du Pont family Astor family Livingston family Longworth family Hoffman family Schuyler family Goodyear family Lowell family de Peyster family. Whitney family
Estate(s)	Sagamore Hill (Oyster Bay, New York) Springwood (Hyde Park, New York)

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, politicians, inventors, clergymen, artists, and socialites. The progeny of a mid-17th century Dutch immigrant to New Amsterdam, many members of the family became locally prominent in New York 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 national political prominence with the elections of Presidents Theodore Roosevelt (1901–1909) and his fifth cousin Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933–1945), whose wife, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, was Theodore's niece.

History

Claes Martenszen 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 (e.g., 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.

Claes' son Nicholas was the first to use the spelling Roosevelt and the first to hold political office, as an alderman. Nicholas' children 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 Republican Party. 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.

Family tree

Coats of arms

Arms of the Roosevelt family
Adopted	17th century
Crest	Upon a torse argent and gules, Three ostrich plumes each per pale gules and argent.[3]
Blazon	Argent upon a grassy mound a rose bush proper bearing three roses Gules barbed and seeded proper..[3]
Motto	Qui plantavit curabit ("He who planted [us] will care [for us]")
Other elements	The mantling, gules doubled argent.[3]
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 roses-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]

Members

Oyster Bay Roosevelts

Hyde Park Roosevelts

See also

• Roosevelt & Son
• The Roosevelts: An Intimate History – 2014 television documentary miniseries

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. 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 links

• 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.