QUAIFE FAMILY HISTORY

In the dawn of time, on the slopes of the Caucasus Mountains, a hawk circling far above in the blue sky looked down upon a great crowd of people of all ages. This great assembly was beginning to move northward in a great migration. They were going to the country far to the north which is the present day Scandinavia (Sweden, Norway and Denmark). In this body of people is an ancestor of the Quaife family – tall and fair skinned.

It is summer time in Norway about the year of 850 A.D. In the sheltered fiords along the coast there is great activity. Out from the shore come long black Viking ships of war filled with North-men. The ships are around 100 feet long. They are on their way to northern Gaul (Now called Normandy in France).

In one of the ships we see a bold Viking who is of great importance to the Quaife family; this sea-rover is an ancestor of the family.

Finally the long sea journey is over, and they land in what is now Normandy. Here the land is taken over and here they make their new homes. Here the first Quaife of whom we have a record lives. It is the eleventh century. (Miss Fannie Quaife, of Iowa, established this.)

Normandy means “Land of the Northmen”. You can easily see the connection between “northmen” and Norman. Since the first Quaife of history is a Norman, his ancestors almost certainly were originally in Scandinavia and came down to the northern coast of France in about the year 900 A. D.  These Normans went over to England in 1066 under William the Conqueror and defeated King Harold at the great historic Battle of Hastings. Our ancestor of the name of Quaife was with the forces of William the Conqueror at this famous battle. This we learned from Cousin Fannie Quaife who make a trip to Hastings, England. Here she found a gravestone in the cemetery with the name Quaife. Very old. Also she found in the records here that Quaife’s lived in that area from the time of the Battle of Hastings up to the time of her visit. She met some of this family there and talked with them.

Now as to the kind of persons these Normans were: as to the character – for an insight into this family, let us take the history of the Norman race in England as given in the “Battle of Hastings” by the historian E. H. Creasy, written in 1851. (“The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World.”)

“The Norman conquerors of England were the bravest and best; they had extreme valor. The Normans were the ruling class – rich and free. The Saxons of England were the laboring people. The Normans were the knights and nobles”

From the “History of France”, Volume 3, page 174, E. H. Creasy quotes in part: “These Normans are full of life, full of the spirit of liberty. They are energetic, but submit themselves to discipline and as soldiers none are better. There is a love of study; they are intelligent, with high forehead.  They are brave to the point of recklessness with their lives… easily excited and moved by patriotism. Great artists, poets, musicians. So, also, in all chivalric feelings, in religious zeal, an almost idolatrous respect to females of gentle birth, in generous fondness of the poetry of the time. A keen intellectual relish for subtle though, and disputation. A taste for architectural magnificence, and all courtly refinement and pageantry.” Pages 152 – 152 “Battle of Hastings” E. H. Creasy and other sources.

Like all mortals, Normans have their faults. However, their hearts are right, and the accomplishments of the Quaife’s of today bear out the fact that they have the brilliant, high character of their ancient Norman ancestors; and have contributed to the building of England and the United States.

The sun shines brightly on an October morning upon two great armies opposing each other, and in Sussex, northwest of Hastings a few miles, the great Norman host is approaching the English force. In the center of the Norman line rides a Quaife knight together with some fifty thousand other brave warriors. They are led by William the Conqueror. Nearby a knight carries the royal standard. Steadily onward ride the knights on their war horses. Hauberks and swords, boots of steel, shining helmets, heavy armor, shields a their necks, and lances in their hands.

We see near King William a gallant Norman knight in full armor, with the exception of the helmet. In its place is a cap – beautiful in design. Holding his lance on high, riding a goodly horse, he has all of the features of his Scandinavian ancestors – fair skin, blond hair, and moustache, with clear blue eyes. In later centuries these eyes of blue gave rise to the saying “Eyes of English blue.” His shield bears the arms of the Quaife family. Thus did the first Quaife come to the shores of old England. Near Hastings he was given land by William the Conqueror. There he remains all of his life.

The Normans landed in old England on September 29, 1066. The banners of the three lions of Normandy were soon flying on English soil near Hastings; some 50,000 gallant Norman knights in full armor upon spirited war horses brought over from Normandy in boats; that was what the farmers of Sussex saw when the sun shone through the channel mist on the morning of October 14, 1066.

The Normans are in the center of the line; on either side are the Bretons (from Brittany) and the French – archers, foot soldiers. There is a great battle cry “God Help Us!” from the Normans.

The Quaife part of our family is Norman French by way of England. Cousin Fannie Quaife, high school mathematics teacher originally of Ionia, Iowa, visited England several times and established the events and facts that form the basis of this brief family history. She did this from English church records.

The Norman French are northern European, or Nordic. These Nordics, or “Northmen” had their original home in Norway, Sweden and Denmark. Further historic records of the Northmen place their ancestors in remote antiquity in the Caucasus mountains; members of the white race (Caucasian). These mountains range between Europe and Asia – between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea.