Many years ago I realized that a storehouse of information was about to be lost when the older generation that grew up in the depression years passed on. So I bought a tiny recorder and began interviewing older individuals that grew up in Tattnall and Evans County. I asked open ended questions and let them talk as long as they wanted before asking another question. I always started off asking who their parents & grandparents were and then asked their earliest memories. Then I used a medical transcription machine & typed the interview word for word later editing for clarity only. This project became, "Tales of Old Tattnall & Evans" my book written in 2012.
From these interviews I learned of old neglected cemeteries. When Dottie Simmons was writing "A History of Evans County" my husband and I cataloged the graves in many of the Evans County & a few Tattnall County Cemeteries for her book.
When we first visited Old Shiloh Cemetery on the Woodpecker Trail just off Hwy 57 near Reidsville it was overgrown with trees & vines. So we contacted Derwood Tootle & Martha Tootle Cain who also had family buried there. Together we initiated the cleanup effort & raised funds to restore the cemetery. We had underground penetrating radar done and researched genealogy to locate relatives of persons buried there. After completion we had a grave marking ceremony under the old oaks complete with a Historical Marker and a new chain length fence surround.
It was a few years later before I discovered Find A Grave. My goal is to use my genealogy research to link family members, to add photos and obituaries to existing memorials and to create new memorials when I find persons without a memorial.