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
Articles Referencing: Bates, Gilbert E (b. 1874)
Family history information about Michael's grandfather.
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
Migration – From Michigan to California
Around 1906, my grandparents and great grandparents moved from Michigan to California. This included all my grandfather’s siblings except one, as well as most of my grandmother’s family. All told, there were at least 21 family members, possibly more, so I’ll call it a migration. I think that the Bates moved out together, but I think the that the Lockwoods may have moved a bit later. I have not determined what may have prompted them to leave Michigan. In this post, I will present what I do know about where they settled in California. Read more »about Migration – From Michigan to California
My Aunt Was Twice Connected to My Second Great Grandmother
When I first started asking questions about family history (late 1990s), my aunt, Luella (Munroe) Bates, mentioned that she was related to the Bates family somehow, aside from her marriage to my uncle, Clifford Bates. Luella passed away in 2009, and we were never able to work out the connections. This was one of the early puzzles that got me interested in looking into the family history. Read more »about My Aunt Was Twice Connected to My Second Great Grandmother
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