 He was the son of prominent businessman Samuel Roosevelt (1813–1878) and Mary Jane (née Horton) Roosevelt (1823–1901).His brother was Nicholas Latrobe Roosevelt, the father of Henry Latrobe Roosevelt, who served as the Assistant Secretary of the Navy under their distant cousin, Franklin D. Roosevelt.His paternal grandparents were Nicholas Roosevelt, an inventor involved with the steamboat, and Lydia Sellon (née Latrobe) Roosevelt, daughter of his grandfather's friend and business partner, architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe.