Charles Gates McAdams was married as many as 3 times. The first time he married Nancy Elizabeth McFarlin on January 20, 1872 in Clinton County, Indiana. Nancy was his first cousin once removed, being the daughter of his first cousin, Mary Jane (McAdams) McFarlin. No evidence has been found of any children from that marriage. Exactly what happened to Nancy is not known.

What is known is that Charles married Mary E. McClure on June 10, 1879 in Hardin County, Ohio. In 1880 Charles and Mary appear in the U.S. Census in Marion Township in Hardin County, Ohio with two children ages 5 and 4 living with them listed and daughter and son but named Arminda McClaren and Thomas McClure. In the 1885 Kansas State Census Charles in living in Zeandale, Riley County, Kansas with a daugther, Nora McAdams 5 years old. Charles is listed as 'Married' but no wife is living with them.

What happened to that second marriage is not known. What is known is that Charles was married again about 1888 in Alma in Wabaunsee County, Kansas to Emma Celeste Nogle, born on June 23, 1862 in Sadorus in Champaign County, Illinois. Charles and Emma had 5 children, only 2 of which lived to adulthood: Carrie (b 1888 d 1890), Helen (b 1892 d 1893), Harry (b 1893 d 1893), David Ray (b 1896),and Rose Jane (b 1900). The first three children were born in Bourbon County, Kansas and are buried there. David was born in Grundy County, Missouri and Rose in Ritzville in Adams County in the state of Washington where Charles tried homesteading. In 1910, Charles and family were living in Abernathy Township in Clackamas County, Oregon. Shortly there after he moved back to the midwest, this time to Arkansas.

Charles' life came to a tragic end when he was shot and killed by an acquaintance on June 17, 1912 in Little Flock, a small community just east of Bentonville in Benton County, Arkansas where he was living at the time. His wife and two children moved back to her home territory of Champaign County, Illinois.