Why we started the Rock County Pioneers Project

​The Pioneers Project exists to encourage descendants of early Rock County pioneers to help the Society build an online Pioneers Index through 1870 by submitting evidence of their ancestors’ residence in Rock County, Wisconsin. Because official Rock County records before 1870 are so few, this project strives to build a reliable Pioneer database proving residency of our earliest settlers.We also created the Pioneers Project to archive, index and publish the submissions of Rock County, WI Pioneers through 1870. The original submission forms will be archived and available to researchers at the Society Library in Janesville, WI. From these Pioneer Submission Forms, the Society will build a basic Pioneers Index by abstracting key information from Pioneer submissions. The Society will also publish the online Pioneers Index to make information available free on the internet. 

Early pioneers often left scant trace of their lives in Rock County. During its earliest years, Rock County served as a migratory stopping point. Recording and preserving an early pioneer’s brief presence in Rock County may be a link to a migratory path which began in the East and ultimately ended further west.