Charles Ellen Quartermaine
ON THE MOVE AGAIN
Charles and Ellen Quartermaine who were married in the early 1800s.
Katikati Advertiser
Tuesday, 8 March, 2005 (p. 5)
HOMEWARD BOUND – PUZZLE SOLVED
A story that began in Katikati as a mystery without much hope of being solved has ended up with two lost old photographs on their way “home” to Australia. (Note Katikati is a town located between Waihī Beach and Tauranga, North island, New Zealand.)
Ellen & Charlie Quartermaine
Charlie and Ellen Quartermaine’s 1880s wedding photo is on its way to a family reunion in Western Australia in the hope it can be returned to its descendants. Gladys and Ken Moore of Kawerau have agreed to take it and another old photo found in a box that Sharnie Riley of Katikati bought at a garage sale, to next month’s Quartermaine reunion in Katanning near Beverley.
“I will be delighted if the photos can go back to their rightful owners,” says Sharnie, who contacted the Advertiser and Bay of Plenty Times for help In finding the Quartermaine family after she rediscovered the photos when spring cleaning a shed at her Hot Springs Rd home last year.
Charlie and Ellen’s photo, along with one of their grandson Arnold, were in a box she had bought years ago at a flea market or garage sale. All that Sharnie could remember was that it had been bought at the Bay of Plenty.
The wedding photo had details written on the back by Charlie and Ellen’s granddaughter Alice and it was her loving words about her family which prompted Sharnie to try to return the photos to her descendants. The newspaper stories brought several calls from people keen to help.
Geoffrey Streeter of Tauranga thought Arnold Quartermaine pictured in military uniform could have been the teacher students called “Q” at Wellington College in the 1940s but his year book revealed the English teacher was M. L. B. Quartermaine.
Helen Duggan of Katikati ,who is a keen genealogist, checked birth, death and marriage records to discover that Charlie Quartermaine was born on a ship rounding the Cape of Good Hope, South Africa, and that he and Ellen married in Washington DC.
Then Elaine Lyttle of Levin, whose grandmother was a Quartermaine (without the ‘E’) contacted the Advertiser after a friend told her of the story. In a letter about the family she said that Ellen and Charlie were farmers at Talbot Creek, near Beverley, in Western Australia in the late 1800s. Charlie the first of Elijah and Elizabeth’s children,, was born in 1860.
The family name has undergone many changes through the years, the New Zealand spelling minus the “e”. The family originated in France, hence the name “quatre” meaning four and “main” for hand. They were people who were described as working so fast with their hands that it appeared they had four hands.
The first reference of this surname was recorded in the 12th Century, one Robertus Quartuomanus,” Elaine wrote. Herbert Quartermaine was mentioned in the Merton Muniments of Oxfordshire in 187 AD, an area where the family still lives today.
Elaine has a copy of the family crest which includes four hands. She was unable to establish a personal link with Ellen and Charlie or Arnold but suggested a call to Ken and Gladys Moore of Kewerau could be worthwhile. Gladys’ mother was a Quartermaine and Ken has extensively researched the family, writing a memoir, about the Quartermaines of England and Western Australia.
He said Charlie’s parents, Elijah and Elizabeth were married in England in 1838 and later moved to Australia, traveling in a covered wagon (no doubt with infant Charlie) over the Darling Range to York, finally settling at Katanning, near Beverley where they became successful landowners. Their story is filled with hardships and struggles. They faced heat, convicts, snakes, the death of several of their babies and isolation – it would make a great movie,” Ken says.
On April 15 and 16, 2005, about 2,000 Quartermaine descendants are expected to attend the reunion at Katanning and visit Elijah and Elizabeth’s homestead – Ken is to be among the speakers at the event.
It is then that he and Gladys hope to give the old photos to Charlie’s branch of the family.
Go to QUARTERMAINE FAMILY Page
Go to ELIJAH QUARTERMAINE Page
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Charles Ellen Quartermaine. Charles Ellen Quartermaine. Charles Ellen Quartermaine. Charles Ellen Quartermaine. Charles Ellen Quartermaine.