Theodore Roosevelt and family in 1903.
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Current region | New York and New England |
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Earlier spellings | Rosevelt, van Rosenvelt, van Rosevelt |
Place of origin |
Netherlands England Scotland |
Connected families |
Delanor family Du Pont family Astor family Livingston family Longworth family Hoffman family Schuyler family Goodyear family Lowell family de Peyster family |
Estate |
Sagamore Hill (Oyster Bay) Springwood (Hyde Park) |
Name origin and meaning | "From rose field" (Dutch) |
The Roosevelt family is an American business and political family from New York whose members have included two United States Presidents, a First Lady, and notable merchants, politicians, inventors, clergymen, artists, and socialites. Descendants of a mid-17th century Dutch immigrant to New Amsterdam, many members of the family became locally prominent in New York City business and politics and intermarried with prominent colonial families. Two distantly related branches of the family from Oyster Bay on Long Island and Hyde Park in Dutchess County, Upstate New York, achieved national political prominence with the elections of Presidents Theodore Roosevelt (1901–1909) and his fifth cousin Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1933–1945), whose wife, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, was Theodore's niece.
The Roosevelt family has been associated with many prominent institutions, including Harvard University and Groton School, which was first attended by Franklin Roosevelt and later many of both his and Theodore's children and descendants.
It has been suggested that Claes van Rosenvelt could have been related to the Van Roosevelts 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 Roosevelts 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 honor his local amt lord, as was common practice for peasants of the time.