Jackson holds bachelor's and master's degrees from BYU and a Ph.D. from Clark University.
He has been a faculty member at BYU since 1969 and has also worked as a consultant to the Utah Historical Society as well as businesses and municipalities.
Among his books are Genealogical Atlas of the United States (1976), The Mormon Role in the Settlement of the West (1978) and a large collections of works written with Llody Hudman.
Jackson was also an editor of the Historical Atlas of Mormonism along with S. Kent Brown and Donald Q. Cannon.
Jackson has also written numerous articles, including three for the Encyclopedia of Mormonism.