If you look at the Franklin D Roosevelt family tree, you aren’t just looking at a list of dead presidents and Dutch merchants. You’re looking at the ultimate American soap opera. People often think the Roosevelts were one big, happy, powerful unit. They weren’t. Not even close. It was a messy, competitive, and deeply divided clan split between two main branches that basically couldn't stand each other for decades.
You have the "Oyster Bay" Roosevelts and the "Hyde Park" Roosevelts. It’s like a 19th-century version of a coastal feud.
FDR came from the Hyde Park side—the Democrats. His fifth cousin, Teddy, was the face of the Oyster Bay Republicans. This wasn't just about politics; it was about pedigree, social standing, and a weirdly complex web of marriages that would make a genealogist’s head spin. Honestly, the most famous marriage in the family was between FDR and Eleanor, who was actually his fifth cousin once removed. Her maiden name? Roosevelt. She didn’t even have to change it.
The Dutch Roots and the Great Split
The whole thing started with Claes Maartenszen van Rosenvelt. He arrived in New Amsterdam—now New York—around 1650. He was a simple farmer. But his grandsons, Johannes and Jacobus, are the ones who really set the stage for the Franklin D Roosevelt family tree to become a political dynasty. Johannes stayed in the city and founded the Oyster Bay branch. Jacobus moved up the Hudson River to start the Hyde Park line.
For over a hundred years, they were just wealthy landowners. Then came the 20th century, and the name Roosevelt became synonymous with the White House.
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It’s wild to think about how much the Hyde Park group felt like the "country cousins" compared to the high-society Oyster Bay crowd, even though they were all stinking rich. FDR’s father, James Roosevelt, was already 54 when Franklin was born. He was a businessman who preferred the quiet life of a gentleman farmer at Springwood. He was a product of old money and older traditions.
Franklin was an only child. He was doted on. He was sheltered. His mother, Sara Delano Roosevelt, was a force of nature who controlled the family purse strings—and Franklin’s life—until the day she died in 1941. If you want to understand the Hyde Park branch, you have to understand Sara. She was the one who kept the family tree rooted in that specific Hudson Valley soil.
The Marriage That Blurred the Lines
When Franklin fell for Eleanor, the family tree got a lot more complicated. Eleanor was the favorite niece of Theodore Roosevelt. Yes, that Theodore Roosevelt.
When FDR and Eleanor got married on St. Patrick’s Day in 1905, Teddy was the President. He actually walked Eleanor down the aisle because her father, Elliott (Teddy’s brother), had died years earlier after a tragic battle with alcoholism. Imagine being the groom and having the most powerful man on earth steal your thunder at your own wedding. Teddy reportedly told Franklin, "It’s a good thing to keep the name in the family."
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The Oyster Bay Roosevelts generally looked down on Franklin. They thought he was a "featherweight." Alice Roosevelt Longworth, Teddy’s daughter and a legendary wit, was particularly brutal. She once described FDR as a "good little boy who had been pushed too far." The rivalry was bitter. When FDR ran for Vice President in 1920, the Oyster Bay clan campaigned against him. They saw him as a traitor to the Republican brand.
The Five Children who Carried the Name
Franklin and Eleanor had six children, though one died in infancy. The others—Anna, James, Elliott, Franklin Jr., and John—grew up in the shadow of a massive legacy. It wasn't easy.
- Anna Roosevelt: The eldest and perhaps the closest to her father in his later years. She ended up moving into the White House during WWII to help manage his schedule and keep him company.
- James Roosevelt: He served as a Marine during the war and later went into politics himself, serving in Congress.
- Elliott Roosevelt: A bit of a rebel. He was a decorated pilot but often found himself in the middle of financial controversies that gave his father’s enemies plenty of ammunition.
- Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr.: He looked remarkably like his father and also served in Congress, representing New York.
- John A. Roosevelt: The outlier. He was the only one of the sons who didn't go into politics and, in a move that surely made his ancestors roll in their graves, he eventually became a Republican.
The Delano Influence: The Other Half of the Tree
We talk about the Roosevelts constantly, but the Franklin D Roosevelt family tree is 50% Delano. And the Delanos were fascinating. They made their fortune in the China Trade—specifically, the opium trade. It’s a dark part of the family history that often gets glossed over in textbooks.
Sara Delano’s father, Warren Delano II, lived in Macau and Hong Kong for years. This global perspective trickled down to Franklin. He grew up hearing stories of the Far East, which arguably shaped his internationalist worldview during World War II. The Delano side brought a sense of stoicism and rigid discipline to Franklin's upbringing. They were "old school" in a way that even the Roosevelts found intense.
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Why Does This Genealogy Matter Today?
Looking at this lineage helps us debunk the myth of the "Great Man" theory. FDR didn't just appear out of nowhere. He was the product of a specific social caste that valued public service, even if they disagreed on how to do it.
The family tree shows us a pattern of resilience. You have the Roosevelt struggle with physical health—not just FDR’s polio, but Teddy’s childhood asthma and the various struggles with addiction on the Oyster Bay side. They were a family that believed they were destined to lead, and they spent centuries building the social capital to make it happen.
Geoffrey C. Ward, a prominent historian who has written extensively on the Roosevelts, often notes that FDR’s sense of "noblesse oblige"—the idea that the wealthy have an obligation to help the less fortunate—came directly from his father’s gentle Hudson Valley upbringing. It was a paternalistic view, sure, but it’s what gave us the New Deal.
Navigating the Roosevelt Legacy
If you’re researching the Franklin D Roosevelt family tree for yourself, don’t just stick to the famous names. Look at the marriages. Look at the Delano side. The real story is in the friction between the Hyde Park Democrats and the Oyster Bay Republicans. It's a reminder that even the most powerful families in history were just as prone to bickering and jealousy as anyone else.
The legacy of the Roosevelt family is still visible in the American landscape, from the FDR Library in Hyde Park to the various Roosevelt Island landmarks in New York City. But the tree itself has branched out so far now that the "Roosevelt" name no longer guarantees a seat at the political table. It has become a historical artifact, a symbol of a time when a few families held the keys to the kingdom.
Practical Steps for Your Research
- Visit the FDR Presidential Library and Museum: Located in Hyde Park, New York, it holds the most comprehensive collection of family papers and photographs.
- Check the Digital Archives: The Library of Congress has digitized a significant portion of the Roosevelt-Delano family correspondence.
- Cross-Reference with the Oyster Bay Line: To get the full picture, research the Sagamore Hill National Historic Site records to see the "other side" of the family's perspective.
- Read "A First-Class Temperament": This book by Geoffrey C. Ward provides an incredible deep dive into how Franklin’s family environment shaped his early political life.
The family tree isn't just a chart on a wall. It’s a map of how power was built, lost, and rediscovered in the United States. If you want to understand the American 20th century, you have to start with the people who lived at Springwood and Sagamore Hill.