Jones was a few years older than Rhinelander and the daughter of English immigrants; her mother was white and her father was of mixed race (then termed “mulatto”). It was reported that, during their three-year relationship, Jones’ father, George, attempted to dissuade the couple from continuing their romance. George Jones reportedly tried appealing to Rhinelander that his family would never accept his daughter due to their differences in class. However, Alice Jones would eventually file court papers, denying that her father ever made this attempt. In February 1922, Rhinelander's father, Philip, attempted to end the relationship by sending his son away to Bermuda on a chaperoned excursion that would separate the couple for two years, as he traveled to Washington D.C., Havana, Panama and California. In October 1922, Philip Rhinelander placed his son in an Arizona private school. However, the couple kept in contact through letters, as evidenced by letters produced at the trial, and when Leonard Rhinelander turned 21 years old, he returned to New York. On October 14, 1924, he married Jones in a civil ceremony at New Rochelle's city hall. The marriage certificate listed both the groom and the bride as "white." Once Jones' ethnicity came into question, the fact that her marriage license identified her as "white" was reported, implying that she had sought to hide her mixed racial ancestry. During the trial, Jones' attorney asked Leonard Rhinelander whether the city hall clerk who had filled out their marriage license had asked either of them whether they were white or "colored." Rhinelander said the clerk had not.