Henry Edward Jones

Henry Edward Jones was born on 16 July 1878 at Bulls.  Bulls is situated between Wanganui and Palmerston North.  The eldest child of John Leonard and Alice Jones. 

Harry married his first wife Christina Emma Olsen in 1900. There first child named after Harry's father, John Leonard was born in 1902 followed by: 

Christina died in 1911 and Harry employed a housekeeper, Fanny Harris (nee Spencer) to look after him and the children.  The relationship however, soon became more intimate and Harry and Fanny had three children before they eventually married at the Registrar's Office in Wanganui two months after the birth of their third child Kathleen on 23 March 1917.

An excerpt from a letter written by Fanny's niece, Ellinor (daughter of Agnes), concerning Fanny said the following:

 "She (Fanny) married again, a man called Harry Jones.  That is a story in itself, she was to have married the father (John Jones), but then they decided between themselves that she had better marry the son.  The father lived with them.  A bad bargain she got again.  They were two of the laziest wretches you could meet, and she had to work terribly hard to keep the two of them and rear a big family…"

They had a combined total of eighteen children, ten children of their own, five from Harry's first marriage and Fanny's three.