Quote Originally Posted by cajunscot View Post
Good question. The Roosevelts were a Dutch family from New Netherland days. I know TR's mother, Martha Bulloch, was of Ulster-Scottish heritage (and reportedly the "real-life" Scarlett O'Hara, as she was from the South) -- ....
I don't know if it's true, but I came across this online recently: "The Roosevelts were Jewish Dutch, arriving in NYC in 1682 (originall y
named Claes Rosenvelt before name change to Nicholas Roosevelt) Sarah
Delano, FDR's mother, was descended from Sephardic Jews..."

Heard it before?

As to Martha Bulloch being the real life Scarlett O'Hara, there are so many families here in Atlanta (Martha Bulloch was from Roswell, a good day's travel from Atlanta at the time) who claim that distinction for an ancestress that I would have to take off my shoes to ennumerate them all. Scarlett was of course fiction, and largely drawn from Margaret Mitchell's own fantasies, but there were anecdotes drawn from ante bellum and wartime experiences of many young women. My favorite contender is a young woman from the Walker family whose family's plantation is now the site of Piedmont Park. During the weeks-long battle of Atlanta, she was the only capable adult there. Soldiers had taken all their livestock, so they couldn't escape. A mule wandered onto the plantation. She named it providence, hitched it to a wagon, loaded her aged parents and young brothers on it and refugee'ed, sleeping in woods, and churches when they could, until it was safe to return home.