Memorial Day USA - Kenneth Scott Bates - 52 Ancestors

As this is US Memorial Day weekend, it's certainly a good time to research your USA military members and families for free. I'm thinking particularly of one of my US veteran cousins today, Kenneth Scott Bates (1919-1998), son of Edward Kimball Bates and Harriott(e) Alice Louise Scott. Kenneth was very interested in his family history and shared information and documents when he visited us in Vancouver, BC.

There are several offers for free access to selected military records.

To May 26 Ancestry: http://www.ancestry.com/cs/us/memorialday2014

And all May - Fold3: http://go.fold3.com/wwii/ The newest records at Fold3 are for US Medal of Honor recipients. For more about this collection, see this Fold3 blog article: http://blog.fold3.com/medal-of-honor-recipients

To May 26 My Heritage: http://pages.myheritage.com/memorialday

My Heritage is my current favourite of the BIG commercial websites. I made a somewhat surprising discovery there last night, in fact. So far, My Heritage seems to have a wide range of types and dates of US military records, millions they say, from the War Between the States through to World War II -  too long a list to post.

Don't forget that FamilySearch also has US military records.  I often find that it's helpful to go back and forth. If I can't find someone in one website's indexes, I may find it in another and the information included may be a bit different  - or there may be associated articles to explain certain aspects of the records, as there are at FamilySearch.

BATES, SCOTT family get together, in Montpelier, Vermont, at the Bates home, c. 1920. Kenneth Bates is the young one in the back row here.

Shown are - Front: Janet Muriel Scott, my mum, from Newdale, Manitoba, Canada; Edward Wallace Bates, my cousin.

Second row: Jeannette Bates, my cousin; May Janet (Wood) Scott from Nottawa, Ontario, Canada, born in Bean Hill, Connecticut, USA, my great grandmother; Amy Estella (Irwin) Scott from Newdale, my grandmother; Annie Pollock Scott, my great aunt, also from Nottawa.

Back: Hariott(e) Alice Louise, Hattie, (Scott) Bates, my great aunt, born in Nottawa, Ontario, Canada; and Edward Kimball Bates, Hattie's husband, with their younger son, Kenneth Scott Bates.

Postcard, Made in Canada, black & white, unmailed. I believe the photographer was my grandfather, James Walter Scott from Newdale, born in Nottawa. Individuals were identified by my grandmother, Amy Estella Scott, in the 1960s.