The Bates Association Welcomes You

Our History:

The Bates Association was formed July 30, 1907 in a meeting held at the Brunswick Hotel in Boston Massachusetts. About 100 members of the Bates family attended. The first “Bates Bulletin” was published in September 1907 and twice a year from then until October 1932. It then began to appear less frequently and the last publication was dated April 1938.

The Association flourished from 1907 to the mid 1960’s holding reunions, publishing the information packed Bates Bulletin, and providing a place for Bates descendants of different ancestral lines to meet and share their common heritage. In July of 1993, representatives of five branches of the Bates families met in Falmouth, Massachusetts to revive the Bates Association. Today’s Bates Association has created a new and expanded version of the Association, chartered in Massachusetts, which is open to all individuals and institutions interested in the Bates heritage.

In 1980 Dr. Charles Benjamin Ben) Bates of Joppa Maryland discovered some cousins, descendants of Edward Bates of Weymouth Massachusetts. He began writing letters to them. These letters became a semi-annual newsletter called “The Bates Chronicle”.

Interest in the letter picked up with widespread requests for copies until; in 1993, it was decided to reorganize The Bates Association. Dr. Ben Bates and William C. Bates became the founding fathers of this restoration effort. The meeting was held in Falmouth, MA in July of that year, with representation from five branches of the Bates family. The association is chartered in Massachusetts and the newsletter is again called by the original name “The Bates Bulletin”.

Today’s organization not only honors the New England Origins of the Association but also honors equally those of other origins within the United States regardless of time or place of immigration, as well as “cousins” from other lands.

If you are interested in joining, please go to our Membership page to find out more.