ABSTRACT
At about this same time, Claes Martenszen Van Rosenvelt, the common ancestor of Franklin Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt, and his niece, Eleanor, arrived in New York City and became a successful merchant. Roosevelt’s mother, Sara Delano, felt her lineage was even more distinguished. She liked to tell anyone who’d listen that the Delano line went back to William the Conqueror. On the western side of the Atlantic, Delanos were among the settlers of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1621 and leaders in maritime commerce.
