Elmer A. BATES and visiting in June Date: 2/22/01 5:52:13 PM Eastern Standard Time From: lataylo@cablespeed.com (Lee Taylor) To: MIKALKAS-L@rootsweb.com My great-grandfather was Elmer A. Bates (actually, his name was Marion Alpheus Elmer Bates, his wife even called him "MAE", but he seemed to prefer the handle Elmer A. Bates on official paperwork). Apparently, he was the supervisor of Excelsior Township early in this century (before 1907). We know a fair bit about the Bates family and have some paperwork that might be of interest to local historians. My father and I expect to visit the area around the 22nd of June, and we were wondering what resources (libraries, museums, etc.) are worth visiting in the area, especially if it would help us to find property owned by Elmer A. Bates or his father Chambers S. Bates. The Bates families lived in Lawrence County, TN until 1894, when Chambers Bates somehow procured some land from a man from Kalkaska County (I think it was a straight up trade for the land the Bates family owned in TN). The Bates family lived in Kalkaska County (perhaps Antrim County as well) until Chambers died in 1907, when the Bates family (Elmer's family and Chambers' widow, Emily, who lived until 1930) moved to Ashtabula County, OH. We know that Emily returned to Kalkaska at least once after they left (I have her journals from 1911-1930) and my great aunt, Helen Bates, maintained some sort of correspondence with a teach at the high school that her father helped to get going in Excelsior Township. I'm also looking for any narrative histories that include stories about these Bates families and their dealings in Michigan during this time period. Associated family names are Edwards, Way, Miller and Newell. Lee Taylor Brenda K. Wolfgram Moore Ancestral Lineages by Kingsley http://genealogypro.com/kingsley.html kingsley@aol.com http://members.aol.com/fiddlerben/gtindex.html surnames: Wolfgram, Kratochvil, Secor/Sicard, Jacques, Leguerre, Vallee and and