Local History Database

Description:
The Local History Database is an index to Janesville and Rock County history, through newspaper articles, photographs, books and essays.

Many newspaper articles of local interest are indexed, especially from The Janesville Gazette from 1996 to the present. (Crime reports, death notices, obituaries, wedding notices and sports events are not generally included.) The actual newspaper is on microfilm at Hedberg Public Library. Printed copies of the articles can be made.

The Local History Database provides an index to another Janesville Gazette publication, Century of Stories, a chronological listing of major stories from the local newspaper in the twentieth century.

The Gruver Photos, a collection of historical photographs of Janesville sites, businesses and figures from the 19th century to around 1982, shot and/or collected by Janesville resident, Lowell "Bud" Gruver, are also indexed here. The photos themselves are kept in Hedberg Public Library’s Janesville Room and may be copied.

Click here for a complete list of the items indexed in the Local History Database.

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How to Search:
The index has three fields: subject heading, headlines and article date. All fields are searchable, by themselves or in combination. The most efficient way to start a search is to type a keyword or keywords into the "headlines" field. Then click on "Start Search." After examining the hits produced by that search, delete the keyword(s) from the "headlines" field and enter the same word(s) in the "subject heading" field. Click on "Start Search."

Example: If you are looking for stories about Janesville fires, try "fires" in the "headline" field. After looking at the hits that that search produced, try "fires" in the "subject heading" field.

Tip: To be completely thorough, follow the same procedure again, this time trying "fire" (the singular version of the word) first in the "headline" field and next in the "subject headings" field. (This database is very literal, and doesn’t pull up "fire" when asked to search for "fires.")

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Tips on Using the Local History Database:
--To search by date, enter the date in the "date" field (date format is 03 Apr 1987).

--To search for street addresses, enter the address in the "headlines" field (example: 303 S. Court St.)

--To find a photo, type "photo" or "photos" in the "headlines" field.

--If you want to see all the subject headings starting with a particular letter, (for example, all the "B’s"), click on the appropriate letter at the top of the search page. To see all the subject headings starting with a particular letter, you have to scroll down to the end of each page for "next results."

--To find a graph, map or statistics, type "graph" into the "headlines" field.

--Subject headings followed by blank "headline" or "date" fields mean that there are pamphlets on the subject in the Janesville Room pamphlet collection.

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