On Thursday, not one but two presidential descendants spoke to a packed auditorium at the Buffalo History Museum.
Tweed Roosevelt is the great-grandson of President Theodore Roosevelt and Massee McKinley’s maternal ancestor is Grover Cleveland and his second-great uncle is William McKinley. The duo spoke about their families, historic preservation, and civic engagement.
Roosevelt shared that he was delighted so many people attended and wanted to learn about their civic duty.
“I'm delighted because we really need to understand our history more. We're going through a time where our citizenry, lots of our citizenry, have no idea. They know what their privileges are, but they don't know what their duties are," Roosevelt said. "So, we have to do what we can to teach them the way we were taught, and so that's what we do.”
Both men helped found The Society of Presidential Descendants, which has located and connected about 250 descendants, provides civic education, supports literature on presidential leadership and hosts a scholarship. The organization also does work specific to preserving and honoring the history of America’s First Ladies.
McKinley said they’ve found people are fascinated by both roles.
“They have a fascination about the presidency," McKinley said. "And I would say the same for First Ladies too, to give them credit, because I've always been a proponent of those women. I mean, an unpaid job, and they did so much for their husbands, and a lot of the men would not have been president without those women.”
The event was presented by the Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site and the Buffalo Presidential Center.
