Series IV. Family Papers and Records contains the personal papers of members of the extended Bates family, as well as business records from family members who were not employed by Bates & Co. Materials include receipts and bills, personal and business correspondence, household records, ephemera, textiles, bound volumes, and photographs. Materials are grouped first by individual, then in folders by subject or format. Within each folder, materials are chronologically arranged.

Highlights include John D. Bates’ correspondence with his wife, son, and step-son; John D. Bates, Jr.’s household accounts for his estate in Center Harbor, NH; William H. Gilman’s records as Navy Paymaster for the U.S.S. Eastport and U.S.S. Vandalia; and Mary Bates’ household account books. Series IV also includes materials related to scrip from the Kaw Treaty of 1859, in which the United States government took 176,000 acres of land from the Kaw Nation and sold it; correspondence about the scrip is located in John D. Bates, Jr.'s papers.