Category: Bates Family

  • Highlighting My Bates Lineage

    Highlighting My Bates Lineage

    This article provides an overview of my Bates lineage.  It covers the four generations of the Bates family that I have been able to trace so far, starting in 1795.  I have included a brief biographical sketch about each generation and listed other family names connected to the Bates family tree.

  • A Memorial Book By Otto S. Lewis

    A Memorial Book By Otto S. Lewis

    This article is about a book written by Otto S. Lewis after his wife and two children perished in the shipwreck of the SS Columbia in 1907. Titled ‘In Memory of My Beloved Wife Mabel B. Lewis and Children Florence and Ray’, it is one of those rare finds that provide both an in-depth look…

  • The Shipwreck Of The SS Columbia

    The Shipwreck Of The SS Columbia

    In this article, I take a look at events surrounding the 1907 shipwreck and sinking of the SS Columbia as reported in various newspapers of the time.  Stories of the disaster claimed the front pages of West Coast newspapers for several days as details of the event became known.  Particular attention is paid to the…

  • Discovering Family Lost in a Shipwreck

    Discovering Family Lost in a Shipwreck

    I first heard that some family members had died in a shipwreck from my aunt, Luella (Munroe) Bates. She didn’t recall  the details, but said that a book had been written about it.  The book, of course, had been lost over the years.  This is the first of several articles describing the search for those family…

  • Who were Grandma Ostrander and Aunt Minnie?

    Who were Grandma Ostrander and Aunt Minnie?

    In my dad’s baby book, my grandmother, Beatrice Lockwood Bates, listed the gifts he received for his first and second Christmases. Each year a present was received from Grandma Ostrander and one from Aunt Minnie Edwards, but no one in the family recognized these names.  In this article, I describe discovering the family connection to…

  • A Biographical Album… and a Train Robbery!

    A Biographical Album… and a Train Robbery!

    One of my early searches for family members on my grandmother’s side turned up an unexpected biography of her father and his family.   In this article, I take a look at a biographical album that contains a profile of Franklin J. Holman, and a reference to a train robbery.