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| Etc. -- R.I.P. William Brock Jackson |
| Introduction |
Source Documents |
Other Sources
| Photocopies | Back |
| Norfolk Genealogy has lost a
keen explorer by webmaster John Cardiff Every visitor who ever found this web site useful or interesting lost a friend 13 May 2007 when William Brock Jackson, 80, passed away. Except for “W.B.” this site would not exist, for he is the one who sparked the webmaster’s interest in genealogy and was always there to gleefully prod, genuinely support, and generously share over the years. As often as not, Bill was also the Norfolk Historical Society volunteer on the other end of site visitors' genealogical requests, the one who photocopied historical records in the Norfolk Archives at the Eva Brook Donly Museum, when site visitors requested copies for their own files. No matter how big this site grew, W.B. prodded for more. Could it be faster? Could it be easier? Then heartily supported our efforts to grow and improve. He loaned us the 1943 Simcoe High School photo for scanning, and encouraged his brother-in-law George Jackson “Jay” McKiee to loan us his 1946 Simcoe High School photo for scanning. These two ‘where are they now’ features are still netting responses. W.B. was a fifth generation Simcoe resident whose ancestors began settling Norfolk County in 1796.
He came by his interest in family history naturally, building on the research of his father,
Harold M.
Jackson, and of his maternal grandmother, Sarah Shearer “Sadie” McCall of St. Williams.
His ancestors were charter members of the Norfolk Historical Society, an unbroken family tradition that
survived him. A multi-term member of the Board of Directors of the Norfolk Historical Society, he donated dozens of family
and community documents to Norfolk Archives. Bill was the driving force behind, and coordinator of, several NHS transcriptions, most recently the series entitled Charlotteville Births, Charlotteville Marriages and Charlotteville Deaths. W.B. was the Norfolk Historical Society’s volunteer of the year in 2004. He was also a long time member of the Norfolk Branch of Ontario Genealogy Society. He tracked down what he called A Tale of Three Sisters, a family genealogy puzzle that had gone unsolved for decades. Sometimes mischievous, occasionally irritating in his drive for better -- which could disregard the distance between here and there -- he marched toward right as he saw it, even if that meant swimming against currently prevailing tides. As he lay dying, all Bill asked of me was "Are we square? Are there outstanding issues to clear?" I assured him "We're square." Except that he left us all in his debt, a debt we can now only pay forward.
He was Treasurer and Director of J. B. Jackson Limited and |
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