A collection of about 50,000 index cards known as the Family History Index made up a major component of the local history material. A retired lawyer and amateur genealogist named Harold Jones started the collection as a hobby, clipping obituaries from the local Chelsea Standard newspaper and other sources and pasting them onto 4 x 6 index cards, along with cross references that allow women to be located by maiden name. Upon his death in 1987, Jones’ family donated the collection to the library, where it received extensive use by local and visiting genealogists. Library staff and volunteers completed a project from 2000-2002 to clean up and update the collection, since then volunteers have continued adding new clippings.