PrenticeNet

In reviewing various websites a few days before Thanksgiving Day, 25 Nov 2006, we found some which had posed an interesting question: What ancestor would you invite to dinner on Thanksgiving Day, and why?

I could think of a number of ancestors I would like to invite, but settled on my Valentine Prentice who emigrated from Chelmsford, Essex, England in 1631 and settled in Roxbury, MA. Besides the genealogy information he could provide, he would have a multitude of interesting stories to tell about his experiences in England in the early part of the 1600s, about his sea journey to America, and about the experiences he and his family had in early colonial America.

Intrigued by the question, I refined it a bit and sent out queries on various Prentice lists asking: "Which Prentice, Prentis or Prentiss ancestor would you invite to dinner on Thanksgiving Day, and why?"

Here are the only 2 responses we received:

1. From Donna: "For Thanksgiving dinner, I would invite my Great Grandfather. JOHE E. PRENTICE. I would let him know how proud I was of him for his service to this country in the Civil War. I would also tellhim that my brother, his Great grandson, and my sister and I, his G-Granddaughter's all served in the military, and we ask God to watch over the young men who are now serving in Iraq and Afganistan.

When he feels comfortable in knowing that I love him because he is a part of who I am, I would ask him, What ever became of his brother ASHER, and does the E in his name stand for ELA. Once we have established a strong bond to him and our other ancestor's, We would all thank GOD for the strong determined family that we, JOHN'S decendants have become."

2. From John Lee Mangus: "I would invite William Prentice from Williamsburg. I want to know more about his oldest son, Daniel, from whom I believe I descend. Interestingly, my own son is going to visit him (so to speak) by spending his Thanksgiving in Williamsburg."

Finally, I cannot resist a response received from a person in a different list who said he would like to invite the person who set the 1921 fire that destroyed the 1890 census records in Washington DC. Others endorsed that idea, one saying, "Darn him anyway. No turkey for him!"

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