US President in a kilt

[gilmore]

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.

[macwilkin]

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?

Can't say I have...interesting. As I remember, New Netherland was relatively tolerant in terms of Jews in the colonial era.

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.

Hence my use of the word "reportedly". :mrgreen:

I was a bit skeptical of the claim when I first heard it on a documentary about Teddy.

T.

[Galician]

Can't say I have...interesting. As I remember, New Netherland was relatively tolerant in terms of Jews in the colonial era. Hence my use of the word "reportedly". :mrgreen: I was a bit skeptical of the claim when I first heard it on a documentary about Teddy. T.

Actually, here in the former colony of New Amsterdam, Pieter Stuyvesant, the governor of the colony, refused to allow the Jews to build a synagogue. They were able to do so only after the Dutch East India Company, under whose authority the colony was established and run, overruled him and allowed the Jewish community to build a house of worship.

I hadn't heard of a Jewish connection for the Roosevelts, though, and question the source. Given the hatred still held for him and his political legacy in some circles, I can't help but wonder if it might not have come from a smear campaign against him.

[Ian.MacAllan]

. . . I hadn't heard of a Jewish connection for the Roosevelts, though, and question the source. Given the hatred still held for him and his political legacy in some circles, I can't help but wonder if it might not have come from a smear campaign against him.

Having been raised in an unremittingly biased Republican culture, and having distinct memories of the last five years of the FDR administration, I can assure you that he was the target of many smear campaigns. It has even been alleged, perhaps credibly, that his lack of action to relieve Jewish victims of the Nazis was motivated partly by apprehension that such action would encourage American anti-Semites to oppose his domestic and foreign programs.

.

[highlander_Daz]

Members of the royal family wear the kilt when north of the border, although william and harry dont seem to be carrying on this tradition, I dont recall Gordon Brown ever wearing the Kilt and Tony Blair only wore it whilst performing in a theatrical play.

[Galician]

I propose that we start a drive to have images of Teddy and FDR erected on the Mall in D.C. kilted in the Dutch Friendship Tartan.

[macwilkin]

I propose that we start a drive to have images of Teddy and FDR erected on the Mall in D.C. kilted in the Dutch Friendship Tartan.

Or the New York tartan. Teddy could also wear the NYPD tartan, since he was Police Commissioner in the 1890s.

T.

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

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?

Before the Second World War Josef Goebbels, the Third Reich's Minister of Propaganda, created a bogus Jewish genealogy for all of the Allied leaders, including a number of top ranking military personnel. This was disseminated in the USA by the German-American friendship league, among others. Allegedly Henry Ford, an ardent believer in the world wide Jewish conspiracy and an implacable foe of FDR (until 7 December 1941), was convinced of Roosevelt's Jewish ancestry, something no competent genealogist has ever unearthed.

BACK ON TOPIC:

If modern day generals count, Stormin' Norman Schwartzkopf wore his Peter of Lee tartan kilt to a dinner at The Lee in Lanarkshire...