What originally started as a thought bubble to gradually update Project Harold from v2.0 to v3.0 and also update the 2018 Family Tree to an updated 2021 Family Tree while I was at it, turned out to be something else entirely.

As it happened, it ended up being four weeks of frantic searching and downloading as much 'stuff' I could get my hands on, followed by three weeks of putting together what turned out to be some interesting information into a bunch of hopefully easy to read and follow web pages. And I'm yet to start on the Family Tree.

I started out by searching the Family Search database for some reason. This was a good beginning as it was a freebie, but the attached info was either hard to get access to or incomplete, so I bit the bullet and returned to Ancestry with a one month subscription and started falling down way to many rabbit holes, ending up using both to find things.

At some point, I had an inkling that one of the Jones ancestors served somewhere during the Napoleonic Wars with the only clue being the name of his wife. (As it turns out, I believe she is Welsh, not French or German.) Found quite a number of people that would suit but needed a Fold3 account. Guess what? They are part of Ancestry, so for a few dollars more... Within minutes (yep, minutes), I found our very own Chelsea Pensioner! Read all about him on the "Those Joneses" page.

One of the good things that Ancestry does, is connect extended distant family members. That certainly helped in pushing the Edeson family tree back to the 15th century, which you can see on the "Harold v3.0" page. This also closed off a few items of Harold Edeson's (aka Wade) life, in particular the mystery of his wife Comfort.

The Harold page created two spin-offs; "Joseph & Matilda" and the "Edeson Old Bailey Trial" pages. Joseph (aka Charles, maybe this is where Harold came by the idea of using an alias?) and Matilda are a real pair of unfortunates, which makes it understandable that if the chance came along to lift a cool $A114,086.14 (in 2021 Aussie dollars) then why wouldn't you? And how Matilda managed to get out to the Colonies could be another internet mystery along with the wife of our Chelsea Pensioner.

Which brings us to Francis Edeson. Convicted of Highway Robbery, sentenced to death, shown mercy by amending the sentence to Transportation for Life (21 years), marrying a fellow convict, Pardoned after 17 years then becoming a multi-pub licensee in Hobart Town before moving to the Victorian goldfields and eventually dying at Jones Creek. But what if all that shouldn't have happened? If you read his Trial page, what conclusion do you get?

Whoever said families were boring, have never looked into what the old codgers got up to. Please enjoy and remember, spelling and grammar mistakes are all mine.

Cheers

Wayne Jones

21 September 2021

webpage content © Wayne L Jones 2021 or © Wayne L. Jones/Sportz Fotos 2021 unless otherwise indicated.