PRENTISS/PRENTICE

Joyce Potter who was knowledgeable about the Welles family also was knowledgeable about the Prentice family. One set of her ancestor parents was a William Welles, brother of John P Welles, and a Harriet Prentice. Joyce explained that in her Prentice family, Prentice was the spelling used; however, there were also many other families with the Prentiss spelling. It seems as if some members changed the spelling deliberately distinguish between people as there were many with that name. Joyce had identified the parents of her Harriet, but did not know about Rebecca.

I found in the online 1830 census records all Prentice families living in Steuben Co, NY and recorded the age range for each member of the family. I had observed that the 1855 census information sent to me by the Historian’s Office for the Wells search also contained information about several Prentice families. A William Prentice family lived close to Benjamin Welles, the father of John Wells; it also had an elderly female, Martha Prentice, living with them. I speculated that she might be the mother of William and possibly also the mother of Rebecca so I reviewed the 1830 census records to see if there were a female Prentice of the age that would correspond to Martha Prentice. There was one such female; she was in the John Prentice family, which lived in Pulteney. Pulteney also was the township where Benjamin Welles and William Prentice lived in 1850. It appeared as if I had found the parents of Rebecca. The parents of Harriet Prentice were John Prentice and Martha Bridge. Therefore, I concluded that 2 Welles brothers married Prentice sisters and that the Prentice line of Joyce was also that for Carol.