ROOSEVELT FAMILY

The 'Roosevelt family' is a prominent American political family, having produced two Presidents, Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin D. Roosevelt, and a First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt.
The first member of the Roosevelt family was Claes van Rosevelt (or Rosenvelt), who arrived in New York (then known as Nieuw Amsterdam) around 1649, possibly as early as 1638. Around 1652, Claes Martensen van Rosenvelt bought a farm from Lambert van Valckenburgh [1]. This property comprised of twenty-four morgens in what is now Midtown Manhattan, including the present site of the Empire State Building. It has been suggested that Claes may have been related to the van Rosevelt (or van 't Rosevelt) family that lived in Oud-Vossemeer [2] in Zeeland province of the Netherlands at that time, but no definite link has been established.
In 1788, Isaac Roosevelt was a delegate to the New York state convention in Poughkeepsie which voted to ratify the United States Constitution.
In the 18th century the Roosevelt family divided into two branches, the "Hyde Park Roosevelts", who by the late 19th century were Democrats, and the "Oyster Bay Roosevelts", who generally became Republicans. President Theodore Roosevelt, an Oyster Bay Republican, was President Franklin Roosevelt's fifth cousin. Despite their political differences, which led family members to actively campaign against each other, the two branches generally remained friendly: James Roosevelt met his wife at a Roosevelt family gathering in the home of Theodore's mother, and James' son Franklin married Theodore's niece Eleanor.

Coats of arms

Roosevelt family tree (partial)

Coats of arms

The Roosevelt Coats of Arms: Theodore and Franklin Delano are illustrated and explained at the American Heraldry Society. The Roosevelt family coats of arms generally feature thorned red roses and red and white ostrich plumes. Eleanor Roosevelt also was entitled to use a version of the Roosevelt coat of arms, even prior to her marriage to Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The first example of this coat is on a silver tankard made for Nicholas Roosevelt, son of Claes Roosevelt. It is not known if Claes or his ancestors used this design, or used a coat of arms at all, before the family immigrated to the United States.
Nicholas' coat of arms was used by many generations of the family. It is an example of canting arms, arms which are a visual pun on the individual's name. The shield on Nicholas Roosevelt's arms is charged with three roses on a thorny bush growing from a grassy hill—a play on the literal Dutch meaning of Roosevelt, "rose-field." This design was adopted unchanged by Theodore Roosevelt. Franklin Delano Roosevelt modified the arms for his own use to be three thorny cut roses, rather than a bush, and eliminating the grassy hill. Both of the presidents used three ostrich plumes in the crest above the shield.