This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Gates Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/BOY.2ACIB/1439.1 Message Board Post: I also research the Gates family of Venango County. Do you know who George's father was? Any chance it was Heinrich Goetz? If so we are related. The name Emerson comes up again in the tree later on which makes me think there may be a connection. My husband is a descendant of John Henry Gates 1850 - 1921 and Elizabeth Sherry. Prior to that it is all pretty foggy to me. See anything that might connect? I think John Henry's father was John Henry too. A son of George Gates. A son of Heinrich Goetz.