The Quartemont Family
The Quartemont family originated in Belgium in the province of Brabant, which is southeast of the city of Brussels, Belgium. The name Quertemont likely dates back to around 1200, as do most surnames of French origin. It probably originated from the physical description of the place where the family originated. The direct verifiable lineage of the Quartemont family has been traced back to Philippe Quertemont, who was born at Cortil-Noirmont, Belgium about 1665 and died December 4, 1717. His marriage certificate to Martine Henry on February 3, 1688 spells the name Kertaimont, which was probably a phonetic interpretation. It is consequently, quite likely that the name Quertemont is a phonetic abbreviation of the family's ancestral village, Cortil-Noirmont.
Civil and church sources record at least two generations of the Quertemont family lived at Cortil-Noirmont until 1756, when Jean-Francois Quertemont (grandson of Philippe) moved to the town of Corbais, Belgium to marry Christine Lucas, who lived there. Two more generations of Quertemonts lived at Corbais until Jeanne-Joseph Quertemont (granddaughter of Jean-Francois) moved to the town of Corroy-Le-Grand. These three towns are all quite close together and show that the family gradually moved southeast, deeper into French speaking Walloon country. All the Quertemonts in the lineage were engaged in traditional vocations. Most were farmers and lace-makers.
Jeanne-Joseph Quertemont gave birth on March 2, 1816 to Jean-Joseph Quertemont. Both the church and civil records for the birth show that she was unmarried and that Jean-Joseph was illegitimate. There are no clues as to the identity of his father in any of the records. It is possible that his father was a soldier in Napolean's army, as there was a large Napoleanic military presence in the area at the time. The Battle of Waterloo was fought nine months before Jean-Joseph's birth, only 15 km distant.
Jean-Joseph Quertemont is the ancestor of every Quartemont in the US, as he emigrated to Door County in July of 1856 with his wife Eulalie, son Alphonse and four daughters, Josephine, Amandine, Elisabeth and Virginie. The family was one of the first wave of Belgian immigration to Door County and were some of the area's first Belgian settlers. They cleared the land and took up farming. Alphonse Quertemont married Philippine Splingaire at Rosiere in 1876. They had three children, Frank, Ida and Mary. Frank married Honorine Chaudoir at Union in 1903 and at that time, he changed the spelling of the name to Quartemont.
Because Frank was the only son of an only son of an only son, there are no other closely related Quertemonts in the US or Belgium. In fact, there had been no male children who lived to adulthood in this Quertemont family since the 1750s. Because of the change to the name's spelling, all Quartemonts in the world today are descended directly from Frank Quartemont and Honorine Chaudoir. Unlike his ancestors, Frank had many children, including Henry, Clarence, Alphonse, Mary, Francis, Raymond, Harry, Roland, Florence and Lloyd. The last of these children was Harry Quartemont, who passed away on October 30, 2008 at the age of 91, but there are now literally hundreds of descendents from the family.
For a complete lineage of the entire Quartemont family and all related families, visit:
You can navigate back in time or forward in time by clicking the linked names of people on the website. I compiled the online genealogy at the above link over a period of 20 years with substantial input from many Quartemont and Chaudoir family members as well as the following sources:
Belgian Church and Civil Record Archives
Belgian Laces Genealogy Journal
US Census Schedules: 1860 - 1930
Door County and Milwaukee County Civil Records
Door County Church and Cemetery Records
Door County Community and County Histories
Immigration and Naturalization Records
WWI Draft Registrations
Obituaries from various regional newspapers
Trading genealogy databases with various Door County researchers
I have literally thousands of pages of original documents, archival photos
and narrative histories related to the Quartemont, Chaudoir, VanCaster, Splingaire
and related Door County Belgian families. I'd be happy to make specific materials
available upon request.
Comments and questions can be addressed to Brendon Baillod.