Welcome to the Ethel Index

My grand-mom was always unique. I know people talk about the colorful characters in their families, but really they got nothing on my grand-mom. She was fiercely independent and always did things her way. Sadly she passed away last week. She will be missed.

When I think of my grand-mom, I think of two things: Her love of music and her passion for collecting. The collection that has fascinated me the most is her index. Over the past thirty years she has been collecting various facts, attaching them to small index card sized scraps of paper and cardboard, and adding them to her index. While I have not had time (I am not sure I ever will have enough time) to read even a small fraction of these facts, the ones that stood out today include an entry on sand, a group of entries on china, an entry for the album night ripper by girl talk, and an entry for John Hughes. John Hughes really sticks out because the fact was initially created sometime in the 1980s and then updated last year after his death.

My hope is to begin scanning these cards in to share with interested family members and maybe some random onlookers. Ethel's index is really an amazing thing and I feel that it should be remembered and saved.

Today I ventured to her house and packed the entire index into crates with the goal of transporting it from her home in Woodlynne NJ to my home in Columbia Maryland. The index fit into 22 crates which just barely fit into my CR-V.

Here are some pictures of the index as it existed in her home.