Connecting and improving the pedigree of Bill Gates-1183

+9 votes
660 views
Anyone interested in helping to source, research, and connect the pedigree of Bill Gates-1183?

Trees on Geni/Ancestry elsewhere indicate that Gates-1401 is an Israel Gates, with a line leading to [[Gates-37]]. Can anyone help out here?

Note I messaged the profile manager on Nov 2 to about opening up this line and adding Gates-1183 to the Notables project; today I added a public post and requested trusted list to set the clock on that, but it looks like an admin recently did open up the leafs of his tree so that it's possible to add to or correct it now.

Edit: originally this question was attached to "Unknown Father Gates-1401", now "Unknown Gates". I've reattached this to Bill Gates because despite the description and tags this seems to have caused some confusion as to what the goal is here. The entire existing pedigree needs sourcing and improvement.
WikiTree profile: Bill Gates
in Genealogy Help by Nathan Kennedy G2G6 Mach 3 (39.5k points)
edited by Nathan Kennedy
I made sure there was a list of children on the PGM ancestor Gates-37
My 5th great grandfather Caleb Gates who was born about 1759 in western Rhode Island is believed to have had a brother named Isreal.  I have found no sources that would confirm the relationship.  Also, we have yet to discover any DNA matches for my family that include descendants of Isreal or Joseph Stanton Gates.
T Steinberger,

You might want to start a new g2g thread about this.  This thread is about the living Bill Gates.
The living Bill Gates is descended from Joseph Stanton Gates, so I believe I am on topic.  The original question was if Microsoft Bill could be connected and proven descended from Stephen Gates-37.  

As I am a direct descendant of Gates-37,  if my 6th great uncle Isreal Gates was also the direct ancestor (Gates-1401) of Microsoft Bill this would complete the chain.  I have yet to find sourced evidence nor DNA results to prove the connection.
Thanks T, if you had made your comment an answer I would have selected it. I'm glad to see that sources did eventually get added and his pedigree is now connected up to my Gates line.

Of course there is always much work to be done but this line looks to be in much better shape than when this question was first posed! Thank you and thank you WikiTree.

Edit: though reviewing the comments and changes, it appears that evidence on Joseph Stanton Gates's parentage is still lacking.

I have just attached an image of the marriage registration for Joseph Stanton Gates which named his parents as Ruth and Israel Gates.

Belated thanks N, that is great!

3 Answers

+4 votes
 
Best answer
Bill GATES is eligible for SAR and he has an early ancestor in common with the BUSH Presidents.

I found a source to connect all these GATES up to each other, including 2 Calebs. I have known about the wargs source for years. He is well known for doing the genealogies of famous people. And Gary Boyd Roberts contributed and he is well known for having authored books on the genealogies of American Presidents.

edit: T Steinberger, I just checked the dates on the Calebs and I think your guy will show up in the same family once a pending merge goes through.
by N Gauthier G2G6 Pilot (294k points)
selected by Nathan Kennedy
The evidence that Isreal Gates, son of Simon and Prudence Billings was also the father of Joseph Stanton Gates seems circumstantial and derivative.  I would like to know how WARGS is certain of this.
Wargs is famous for doing many political genealogies in years past.

I found another site, "Famous Kin" which also mentions that Israel GATES is in Bill GATES line, BUT I am not familiar with the quality of "that" website here ...

https://famouskin.com/famous-kin-chart.php?name=14497+stephen+gates&kin=34818+bill+gates

https://famouskin.com/family-group.php?name=34818+bill+gates&ahnum=32

It does provide valid sources for each member of the GATES line which I have added to the GATES male wikitree profiles from Stephen Gates to the William Henrys. I am not related to the GATES line, so I leave it to those who are, to investigate these new source details.

And I point out these 2 more recent reputable sources to see just how much info they have ...

* "Notable Descendants of the Stanleys of Hartford", #61 Royal Descents, Notable Kin, and Printed Sources by Gary Boyd Roberts & New England Historic Genealogical Society

* American Ancestors Magazine 2013 v14.4 p54 by New England Historic Genealogical Society

Please share back your findings :)

I found some info online about those sources I pointed out and there is not enough GATES info there, however the guy who wrote the USA Presidential lineages that are well referred to here on wikitree, is citing the wargs genealogy which I previously pointed out ...

https://www.americanancestors.org/browse/articles?searchby=topic&subquery=royal%20descents,%20notable%20kin,%20and%20printed%20sources&id=634

#10 Gates: “Ancestry of Bill Gates” an ancestor table for 11 generation compiled by W.A. Reitwiesner (with input by Robert Battle and others)


I also found a marriage source for Israel Gates which I haven't seen noted elsewhere yet ... it looks like his wife Eunice was a Gates too. He lived in Rhode Island but married in Connecticut where his wife was from. I have included an image of the source on his profile. If she was 10 years older than him, then her father, her baptism & her first husband are also mentioned on the same page I uploaded.

Check out this book which I found cited for Simon and Israel and Caleb Gates ...  "Records of the Gates families of America from the colonial period to 1860" by Robert Cady Gates in 2 volumes with additional supplement; published c2000 in Hudson, Florida; available at Family Histoy Library.

Thank you for such a well documented response.  I hope I am not coming across as difficult.  FWIW, I would actually like to know that Microsoft Bill and I share a common ancestor less than 10 generations back.  

I've previously seen the marriage record of Isreal and Eunice Gates.  At the same time, Rhode Island vital records document at least 5 children born to Isreal Gates and Elizabeth Gardiner. It seems unlikely the same Isreal Gates could have married Eunice in 1787, fathered children with Elizabeth between 1789-1799, then fathered Joseph Stanton Gates around 1806 (with Ruth?).  I suspect there was more than 1 Isreal Gates in western RI during this time.
Interesting that you are not far away from MS Bill :)

Can you put on Israel's profile, what you think is a correct list of his children & which woman is their mother ?

Online I see that Seth GATES is supposed to be a child of Elizabeth Gardiner but I see him buried on Israel's lot where Israel is buried also.
+6 votes
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-XHL3-54H?i=356&cc=1417505

Death Certificate for one Thomas Jefferson Gates, married, son of Joseph Gates and "Miss Roberts"
by Arora Anonymous G2G6 Pilot (165k points)
here is link to the page of many possibilities!  I'm seeing Thomas J Gates with siblings also seeing Joseph W Gates married to a Mariah Gates, and the death certific. I just sent you link for.. the "Miss" could also be Mias, it is difficult to read.  not seeing an Asa yet
Presidential names like TJ are extremely common. What led you to conclude that was Joseph Stanton's brother? Sources indicate Joseph Stanton was born around 1806 in Rhode Island. Your link expired but your Thomas Jefferson Gates was born in 1855 in Kentucky. I doubt this guy is the right one.

the info on the page your referred to is what I used

and here it is for you to see where I would get the idea that these 3 were siblings

Unnamed Father Gates

Born [date unknown] [location unknown]

Son of [father unknown] and [mother unknown]

[sibling(s) unknown]

[spouse(s) unknown]

Descendants descendants

Father of Joseph Stanton Gates, Thomas Jefferson Gates and Asa Gates

 

since there was no dates within the top section, no parents no nothing, and you mentioned nothing about knowing who or what time period or what area...I gave you links only to look at..I concluded nothing...I just sent you info. but I can assure...I won't do that again. enjoy your research

I believe Nathan was asking a valid question about whether you had found more information on these people Arora. I see that the 4 profiles you pointed out were added several years ago and have not been worked on since. I have added the unsourced template to them in the hope that someone will pick them up and do the work necessary to ensure that this type of confusion does not happen in the future. Thanks for bringing them to our attention as profile needing a little care.
Arora,

Please look at the whole connected tree, descendants and other sources. As stated in my question, this is a direct ancestor of Gates-1183, e.g. Bill Gates the Microsoft co-founder/chairman/CEO. I appreciate you looking at this and also that my question could have been a little more clear, but the information was there.

Nathan
+3 votes
From what I find the profile for Thomas Jefferson Gates would not belong as a child if the father was Israel, I did find a FAG memorial for Thomas Jefferson Gates but none of the siblings or parents match, see https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/33083336
by Dale Byers G2G Astronaut (1.7m points)
Again, I remind you that "Thomas Jefferson" is an incredibly common name and Gates is a common surname. What reason/evidence do you have to associate this memorial to Gates-1402? Again, I am starting from the premise that Joseph Stanton was born ~1806 in RI. Was his brother born 1856 in Ohio? Do you really think TJ Gates was born the year before his nephew, William Henry 1857 - 1928?
Nathan, I am saying that there is NO record of any Thomas Jefferson Gates that I found other than the FAG memorial and nothing matches what the profile has other than the profile has no fathers name. I do not think he belongs in this family.
I am not going to waste anymore time on this.
Okay, I can see what you're trying to say now; I don't know what you mean by waste of time. If you're not interested, that's fine. I didn't actually ask anything about Thomas Jefferson Gates, although if there is no evidence that such person belongs as child of this Unknown Gates or brother of Joseph Stanton Gates he should be unlinked.

What I thought others would be interested in collaborating on is the pedigree of Gates-1183/William Gates III/Bill Gates, and was asking for anything that would shed light on it. There are complete trees and pedigrees linking Gates-1396/Joseph Stanton to Stephen Gates-37, an important Puritan Great Migration founder which is the subject of projects here at Wikitree. Surely there we have genealogists interested in researching this line? I could just copy-paste and link these trees but I have not sorted through the documentation and thought this would be a proper subject of collaboration.

Note, the first answer to this question was a different unrelated Thomas Jefferson Gates also born in the 1850s.
Nathan, To properly source any profile you need to look at everything you have to start with. You made the assumption that Unknown Gates was Israel Gates but I was pointing out that there are no sources available to me for the children listed in Unknown's profile that would make them the children of Israel. You do not know anything about Unknown except that he had 3 boys and I was pointing out that it is very unlikely that the father of Thomas Jefferson was Israel. I could not find anything on either of the other sons so the evidence leads to the conclusion that Unknown is not Israel. Without any sources any claim is unproven and could be false. Collaboration only works with sources otherwise anyone could say anything and could make the entire site nothing more than fiction. Since you do not want to accept the fact that your assumption about the name of Unknown could be wrong and you have not found anything other than trees from other sites that may or may not be well researched and may or may not have sources it is clear to me that you do not want any help unless it fits your assumptions and for that reason I can not help.

Dale,
Respectfully, I am making no such assumption about Unknown Gates. I don't think you are understanding the purpose of my question in the title; perhaps I need to go back and edit the question. I am making one and only one assumption about Unknown Gates; that he is the third great-grandfather of Bill Gates-1183.

I think we can all agree that Bill Gates-1183 is a real person and that he has a third great-grandfather. Currently Unknown Gates-1401 occupies that position. That to me is much more important than assuming that Unknown Gates has three boys named Joseph, Thomas, and Asa, which does not concern me at all a priori.

The reason I linked my question to Unknown Gates- 1401 is simply that he is at the furthest position in Gates-1183's pedigree, like so:
https://www.wikitree.com/index.php?title=Special:Relationship&action=calculate&person1_name=Gates-1401&person2_name=Gates-1183

Joseph Stanton Gates-1396 needs to be sourced too. If that is not in fact the the father of William Henry Gates-1393, then that needs to be fixed, and this question would be about the real pedigree from William Gates-1393 , not Joseph Stanton. For that matter, William Gates-1393 is only sourced for a marriage, so that profile also definitely needs work.

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