Looking at this great family photograph of my grandparents and their five sons, I wondered when it was taken. Perhaps the automobile in the background might provide some clues. Read more »about Dating An Old Family Photograph
Articles Referencing: Bates, Edgar Lewis
Family history information about Michael's father.
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. Read more »about Highlighting My Bates Lineage
Gilbert Bates Buys a Paige “36” Touring Car
On the second page of my dad’s baby book, my grandmother pasted a postcard photograph of the Bates family as it existed in 1914, sitting in an automobile. In this post, I describe details about the photograph and how I found that the automobile was a brand new Paige “36”. Read more »about Gilbert Bates Buys a Paige “36” Touring Car
Finding My Father’s First Home – Santa Ana
When my father Edgar Lewis Bates passed away, I inherited the baby book that my grandmother Beatrice Bates had created for him. Inside the front cover, she had glued several postcard-sized photographs of family homes in Santa Ana, California. The first one she captioned “The place where Edgar Lewis Bates was born Sep 17 1913.” On my annual trip to southern California, I located the house in the photograph and learned a bit about my family’s history in Santa Ana.
Read more »about Finding My Father’s First Home – Santa Ana
The Questions That Got Me Started
My father, Edgar Bates, passed away in 1992 at the age of 79. As I was going through his things, I began to realize how little I knew about his early life and his family history. I found a baby book that my grandmother Beatrice Bates had put together. Besides noting his vital statistics, she had pasted in a number of photographs of dad at various ages. There were relatives mentioned that neither I nor other family members recognized. Read more »about The Questions That Got Me Started