Volunteer Spotlight
RootsWeb.com values each individual and organization that volunteers their time and talents to making our site one of the best on the Internet. We hope you enjoy meeting some of these outstanding volunteers whose dedication have made a difference to RootsWeb.com and other researchers.
Jim "Pops" Jackson
List Administrator, Webmaster, and Outstanding RootsWeb.com Volunteer
As RootsWeb.com users know, a new culture and process for genealogical research was shaped with the development of the Internet. Records which were previously difficult to access are now viewed by countless researchers from their own homes, and a tradition of collaboration between genealogists has intensified.
RootsWeb.com mailing lists are one of the forums researchers most frequently use to team up with those searching the same topic or surname. It is here that fellow genealogists are able to develop relationships with each other, and give advice that helps enable individuals to tear down those brick walls that they run into during their research.
Jim Jackson, or Pops as he prefers to be called, is the administrator of over 150 mailing lists, and is a positive role model for other administrators. Although most of these lists are related to Scottish research, the lists include various topics that many genealogists can benefit from. One such list, and also the most active, is the US-OBITS mailing list.
The US-OBITS mailing list was created in October of 1999, and is used as a forum for people to submit obituaries in their possession. Once these have been submitted, the information is then preserved in the archives for the benefit of other researchers. This list has progressively gotten larger, and now has over 2500 posts. Over 270 were posted in Jan 2003 alone.
In addition to maintaining the US-OBITS mailing lists, Pops is the webmaster of a US Obituaries website. Although the site is currently under construction, there are many links to resources that will be beneficial to any genealogist using obituaries to find their U.S. relatives.
Jim is a positive role model for other administrators. He is consistent in his monitoring to help list members stay on topic, and regularly comments on posts that are well written. In addition to this, Pops regularly keeps his users informed on the list statistics, such as how many list subscribers there are. He is also very helpful to the RootsWeb.com staff by giving constructive feedback and suggestions.
The persistence and dedication to continuously provide high quality service for RootsWeb.com users makes Jim a valuable asset to Rootsweb.com, as well as the entire genealogical community.
On behalf of the genealogical community, we thank you.