Surname: Bates

  • Inside Grandma’s Locket

    Inside Grandma’s Locket

    Looking through old family photographs with my cousin Kathy, we came across a picture of our grandparents, Gilbert and Beatrice Bates. Kathy remarked that she had the locket that Grandma was wearing in the photograph.

  • Dating An Old Family Photograph

    Dating An Old Family Photograph

    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.

  • A Radio at the Ranch

    A Radio at the Ranch

    In researching family history, I often look through old newspapers for articles involving family members. Many old papers published even the smallest events that happened in a community. Searching through one of these newspapers from 1923, I came across a brief mention of a radio at my grandparent’s farm in Valley Center, California.

  • Walnut Slope Ranch History

    Walnut Slope Ranch History

    In 1921, Gilbert and Beatrice Bates purchased Walnut Slope Ranch in Valley Center, California and moved their family from nearby Ramona. This year (2021) marks the 100-year anniversary of that purchase. This article takes a look at how the property came to be the home of at least four generations of the Bates family.

  • The Bates Family Celebrates Christmas 1912

    The Bates Family Celebrates Christmas 1912

    In December 1912, the Santa Ana Register ran an article describing a Christmas celebration at the home of my grandparents, Gilbert and Beatrice [Lockwood] Bates.  Of the twenty-two attendees, at least twenty-one were close family members who had moved from Michigan to California.

  • Grandma Honors Veterans With Service Banner

    Grandma Honors Veterans With Service Banner

    Near the end of World War II my grandmother, Beatrice (Lockwood) Bates created a service banner to honor those in her community that served in World War II.  The banner is now on display at the local history museum in Valley Center, California.