My Grandmother Research Paper

For this paper, I really wanted to focus on my mother’s side of the family, particularly on my grandmother’s ancestors, whose history I honestly knew little about. I had a considerable amount of knowledge about my father’s side of the family, who I at one point I researched extensively, finding ties back to the American Revolution. It was with my mother’s side of the family that I had really never had the time to properly look at. To begin with, I spoke with my grandfather, who is a second generation American. I knew a little bit more about his side of the family as I had had the blessing to know my great-grandmother, Dorothy, while for a short period of time, until she passed away at the age of 96. I had known that she had lived in New York
On her mother’s side, there was immigration from Austria, Ireland, Scotland, and England. One interesting character from this line was a relative of my grandmothers’s great-great-grandfather, who happened to be a Scottish Captain turned pirate, named William Kidd. He had been very notorious for the time and had been executed after a trial at the request of the English Parliament. Many other interesting stories can be found on my grandmother’s father’s side. It is here that the Roosevelt line is introduced. While doing this research, I was able to go back 13 generations to the very first Roosevelt to immigrate to America. His name had been Claes Martenszen VanRosenvelt, born in 1626 in Zeeland, Netherlands. While it is unknown why he chose to initially leave the Netherlands, it can be found that he did arrive in America between 1638 and 1649, coming and settling in New Amsterdam or present day New York City. It was here that Claes married Jannetje Samuels Thomas, also of Zeeland, Netherlands and had seven children. During this time, he decided to buy a farm in New York; 48 acres of what is now Midtown Manhattan. This included the area of the present day