Van Rosenvelt, Claes Martenszen

This first installment of “The Roosevelt Family in America: A Genealogy” includes part one of the genealogy as well as a foreword by John A. Gable and an introduction by its authors, the genealogists Timothy F. Beard and Henry B. Hoff. Part one of the genealogy runs from Claes Martenszen Van Rosenvelt, considered the first Roosevelt to come to America, to John Ellis Roosevelt, born in 1853, and includes sixty-six entries featuring brief biographical portraits of each entrant, along with their birth and death dates, and a listing of their children.

Part one of the genealogy also includes in this order: a two page listing of abbreviations used in the genealogy; a text box with brief biographies of Beard and Hoff; a listing of the officers of the Theodore Roosevelt Association (TRA); a brief history of the TRA in a text box; an illustration of the Roosevelt family coat of arms; and a table showing the descendants of the Oyster Bay and Hyde Park, New York, Roosevelt families.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Article on the inclusion of the family of Jacob Rosevelt in the Roosevelt family genealogy. Rosevelt, a German immigrant, did not marry German wives, and it came to be believed over time that some of his descendants were tied to Claes Martenszen van Rosenvelt, the founder of the Roosevelt family in America. The article notes that the 1902 Roosevelt family genealogy mistakenly included descendants of Rosevelt. A picture of Sagamore Hill National Historic Site appears on the bottom half of the article page.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

1990

This lengthy edition of “News and Notes” opens with a report on the annual meeting of the Theodore Roosevelt Association (TRA) held in New York City on November 8, 1987. The report details the election of the leadership of the TRA, and it highlights an address to the gathering by the Director of the Roosevelt Study Center in the Netherlands. A section on the Broadway musical “Teddy and Alice” follows with a listing of its cast and crew, numerous quotes from New York newspaper reviews, and comments on the actors’ performances. A section on the Roosevelt Studies Center in the Netherlands highlights the conferring of the first Lawrence J. Saunders Awards for essays on American history by Dutch university students.

Updates from the Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site, the Navy League of the United States, and TRA member George Epstein also garner sections. A report on the second annual Teddy Bear drive sponsored by the TRA and the National Park Service, an update on the Roosevelt family genealogy project, and information about the 1988 TRA annual dinner to be held in Dallas, Texas, complete “News and Notes.”

Two scenes from the musical “Teddy and Alice,” three photographs from the Roosevelt Study Center, and a photograph of members of the TRA in Medora, North Dakota, join an illustration of both sides of the TRA medallion as supplements to the text.

Article on the establishment of the Roosevelt Study Center in Middleburg, capitol of the Province of Zeeland in the Netherlands. The article notes that the Center will focus on the lives of Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Eleanor Roosevelt. It details the visit made to the Netherlands by John A. Gable, Executive Director of the Theodore Roosevelt Association (TRA), in November and December of 1985 in which he gave five lectures and visited with various government officials. The article discusses the history of Middelburg and lists the various individuals and entities, including the TRA, that will be involved in its operation and governance. 

 

A picture of the Middleburg Abbey which will house the Center accompanies the article.

John A. Gable provides a detailed report on the opening of the Roosevelt Study Center in the Netherlands on September 19-20, 1986. Gable discusses the inaugural symposium held at the Center, listing the speakers and their topics, and he examines the genealogy of the Roosevelt family, looking at its roots in the Netherlands and the split of the family into the Hyde Park and Oyster Bay, New York, branches. Gable also touches on the purpose of the Center, to provide a European home for the study of American history, and he notes the various resources available to students and scholars. Gable also lists the members of the Roosevelt family and the Theodore Roosevelt Association who attended the opening and are involved in the Center’s administration.

 

Ten photographs supplement the text; seven show people at the opening of the reception with an emphasis on members of the Dutch government, and three show the exterior of the Center’s building, the Middelburg Abbey.  

The “News and Notes” section returns after a hiatus in the prior two issues. The section opens with a listing of the deaths of seven people in 1985 who had some connection to Theodore Roosevelt or the Theodore Roosevelt Association (TRA), and this issue is dedicated to them. The deaths of Peter R. Fisher and John E. Roosevelt are discussed at length in the issue while the life of Harold R. Kraft is examined in this section. The section also covers the visit of a delegation from the Netherlands to Oyster Bay, New York, in connection with the establishment of the Roosevelt Study Center in Middelburg, Province of Zeeland, in the Netherlands. The purpose of the Center, some of its leadership, and the role of the TRA in its founding are examined. 

 

A brief on the “Theodore” exhibit at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum and a notice about a lecture given by John A. Gable at Grey Towers, Gifford Pinchot’s home, complete the section. Two photographs of members of the Dutch delegation in Oyster Bay, New York, are found in the section.

John A. Gable reviews Nathan Miller’s The Roosevelt Chronicles, a history of the Roosevelt family in America. He acknowledges that Miller covers the lives of the well known Roosevelts: Theodore, Franklin, Eleanor, and Alice Longworth, but he believes that the real value of the book comes from its examination of lesser known members of the famous family. Gable looks at four of these figures: Nicholas Roosevelt, a pioneer in steamboats; James Roosevelt Bayley, an important figure in the hierarchy of the Catholic Church; Robert B. Roosevelt, Theodore’s uncle, who was a conservationist; and Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., Theodore’s son, who would earn the Medal of Honor for his actions on D-Day, 1944.

Frederick W. Marks describes the research he undertook for his book Velvet on Iron, and surveys the historiography of Theodore Roosevelt beginning in the 1920s. He argues that there persists a divide between his record as a restrained diplomat and the perception “of him as bellicose and impulsive.

A photograph of Marks accompanies his article.