The Roosevelts represent one of the wealthiest and most influential families in American history, and date back close to 400 years as some of the country's earliest settlers. The last name is one often associated with wealth, power, and leadership.
Theodore Roosevelt is one of the two most famous Roosevelts, along with his distant cousin, Franklin D. Roosevelt, but here are seven interesting facts that may not be as well-known about Theodore Roosevelt's family.
1. Roosevelt and his second wife, Edith Kermit Carow, had five children: Theodore, Kermit, Edith, Archibald, and Quentin.
2. Son Quentin, the youngest, became a U.S. Army Air Service pilot during World War I. He was shot down and killed in aerial combat over France on Bastille Day, July 14, 1918.
3. Son Theodore Jr., the eldest, helped form the American Legion in 1919 and would later serve as Assistant Secretary of the Navy, governor of Puerto Rico, governor-general of the Philippines, and a Brigadier General in the U.S. Army. At 56 years old, he died in France on July 12, 1944, barely a month after leading the first wave of troops at Utah Beach during the D-Day Normandy invasion. He earned a Medal of Honor for his actions.
4. When Eleanor Roosevelt married Franklin Roosevelt, her Uncle Teddy gave the bride away; his and the first lady's signatures appear on the marriage certificate, according to the FDR Library. The wedding date of March 17, 1905, was chosen to accommodate the president, who was scheduled to be in New York for the St. Patrick's Day parade. When asked for his thoughts on the Roosevelt-Roosevelt union, Roosevelt told reporters, "It is a good thing to keep the name in the family."
5. Speaking of FDR, the two presidents are fifth cousins. They share the family surname and guided the country for a combined 20 years. Beyond that, there are many lesser-known Roosevelt family-tree connections: President Martin Van Buren (1837-1841) was a third cousin twice removed to Theodore Roosevelt. According to genealogists, FDR was found to be related to 11 U.S. presidents — five by blood and six by marriage: John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Ulysses Grant, William Henry Harrison, Benjamin Harrison, James Madison, Theodore Roosevelt, William Taft, Zachary Taylor, Martin Van Buren, and George Washington.
6. At the time of Theodore's birth, the Roosevelts were already an affluent and established New York City family. In 1644, Teddy's ancestor Klaes Martensen van Roosevelt arrived from Holland to become one of the first settlers to the area then known as New Amsterdam. By the 1800s, the family ran a hardware and industrial glass firm, which was eventually inherited by Cornelius Van Schaack Roosevelt, Teddy's grandfather. While this contributed to the family's wealth, the most of their wealth came from real estate.
7. Teddy's mother, Martha, came from an equally high-bred Bulloch family. Originally from Scotland, the Bullochs relocated to Georgia from South Carolina and become plantation owners. Archibald Bulloch, Theodore's great-grandfather, was the first Revolutionary president of Georgia, while other family members fought in the American Revolution. Two of Martha's brothers fought for the Confederacy in the Civil War.