First off, I would like to say that I do not mind if anyone uploads, obits, photos, documents, anything of the sort so long as it's legible and pertains to the deceased. In fact, I encourage it, but please try to include the source! I know that oftentimes, the only photo that circulates is from an obituary (and who doesn't want to know what their ancestors looked like?), or the only source for something important is from a document, like a death or marriage certificate. When you send suggestions for memorials I manage, I will oftentimes research deeper on that person if I have the spare time, to not only validate your suggestions, but to help locate and link more family, give more supporting sources, and I absolutely love to share obituaries, as they help tie loose ends and knock down brick walls. I do request that you include your sources for profile edits please. Plus, I know many don't have the extra funds to use major newspaper sites so I try my best to keep Newspapers & GenealogyBank active to help in any way I can. Also, I'm not a bully. I won't message you in a rude manner for any suggestions you send my way or get upset that you claimed a memorial I've made. I believe in working together in a positive way to help bring our ancestors and everyone else's memory "back to life," so to speak. So please don't feel intimidated to message me if you need to. I know how that feels and I personally have encountered bullies and collectors on here and it's sad really. The obituaries I add to memorials are public domain, from newspaper articles to online obituaries submitted by funeral homes. While Find a Grave suggests we leave surviving relatives out due to privacy (and I greatly respect that) I know many don't mind it. Many memorials I manage are family of mine and I know for certain they would tell me to leave the names included because it helps us grow our trees. If I've found the obit to upload, anyone else can. So, if you find names in an obit of survivors that you would like omitted, please KINDLY let me know and I would be more than happy to edit it for your peace of mind. There is no reason to be a bully when it comes to genealogy work, as we're all in this together... but onto happier things and more research!

I'm located in Central Illinois and try my best to help work on and research memorials and cemeteries within my area and other areas of interest. I will happily transfer a memorial to those who ask, so long as it isn't of a close relative of mine, as I request memorials from others from time to time. I will attempt to research any information suggested to me before accepting it, as I try to be as accurate as possible and I try to include sources.

My Paternal family (southern and central IL) surnames are:

Acuff, Alsip/Alsup, Anderson, Arnett, Barringer, Beggs, Bridges, Briggs, Canupp/Knupp, Cauble, Dennis, Dillow, Gore, Gorsage, Harding, Hartline, Henard, Hileman, Hinkle, Isom, Johnson, Kerr, Lingle, Mitchell, Ragsdale, Randall, Rhodes, Rouland, Peeler, Penrod, Sexton, Shaffer/Shafer, Spiva/Spivey, Spoonamore, Treece, Verble, Wilhelm, Williams, Yates and Young, among others.

(Some I'm speculating on: Adams, Allen, Baker, Bastian/Bostian, Beaver, Bishop, Brown, Burgess, Davidson, Dudley, Fisher, Foster, Gurley, Hedgepeth, Hemphill, Hunsaker, Jackson, Jones, Kesler, Lentz/Lence,, Mason, Miller, Millis, Myer(s), Nagel, Parmley, Redwine, Simpson, Spraggs, Stribling, Tucker, Vancil, Walton, Wright, and a few others)

My maternal family (southern OK and southern states) surnames are Hobbs, Quick, Pickens, Bowling, Montgomery, Keys, Corder, Harber, and others. I am a descendant of the Gores that founded Goreville, Illinois.

I have family that reside throughout Illinois and Oklahoma, focusing on Central Illinois, Southern Illinois, and very southern Oklahoma, among other sporadic locations like any family tree has.

Genealogy is not just a hobby for me, but a passion. I strive to research and document my ancestors and am currently working on physically documenting my progress to share with generations to come. I also love photography, so I love to go out and photograph headstones individually, so as to help get those memorial pages with no photos taken care of.

Not only do I love researching my family tree, but I also love visiting and photographing cemeteries in a very respectful, calm and peaceful way. Call me crazy, but when I photograph headstones, I read out loud the names of those who rest there, and talk to them as if they were there. I never want anyone to be forgotten, no matter what they did in life. They were once humans, just like you and I.

Also, I love to purchase old books. Currently, my oldest is the Early Settlers of Sangamon County, written by John Carroll Power, published in 1876. I've lived in Sangamon county majority of my life, so I'm familiar with many of the areas mentioned in the book. I love when I read about a person who's grave I'd visited previous to reading about them. It almost feels like you're reading about someone you know!

With my old books, I love to go through them thoroughly and find the deceased within those pages on here, as well as other favorite research sites, and offer any potentially missing information.

While I do know that what I'm offering is suggestion, based on previous research by those of local historical societies and sketches written by locals of areas within the pages, sometimes those suggestions help knock down brick walls for researchers, just like me.

In my spare time, I research each memorial I come across and try to find obituaries and the like, so I try and fill in birth and death dates and locations, and connect parents and spouses, plus any other info that will help connect each other.

So if you receive any suggestions from me, I mean no harm or anything upsetting. I just love to help! Also, if I've made a memorial for your loved one and you'd like to manage it, just shoot me a message and I'll be happy to pass it along.

NOTE: Also, I tend to take a lot of my photos at an angle to avoid lighting glare and reflections of myself, as many stones are shiny. If I upload one of my photos to a memorial that already has a photo, it's usually because of the previous reasons, or because some others photos have chalk on them (I don't do that) or because they're decorated, making things hard to read, or because maybe lighting was different, stone was cleaner, or broken between previous photos and mine, so to update stone wear and damage, or because some photos don't show the entire headstone from top to bottom and I know some people like photos like that for genealogical reasons. When I upload my photos to memorials with previous photos, it's with the best intentions and not to step on anyone's toes, so to speak.

About My Memorials: when I research a memorial that I'm working on, I use Ancestry.com, FamilySearch.org, GenealogyBank.com, MyHeritage.com, WikiTree.com and Newspapers.com, with the occasional Google search as well as a collection of books I've bought covering local areas within Central Illinois and locations of interest. If I add information to a memorial, I will add which book I found the information in. If I'm able to find an obituary, I include it in the biography with the date and location that the obituary was published. I also will include sources that I've found from the above websites that help me fill in any information that is missing, along with linking family (father, mother, spouse). I hope this helps others in their research, as everyone has a different research approach and two pairs of eyes are better than one. When I also find articles in regards to the deceased's life like major events (births, engagements, marriages, divorces, deaths, etc.) that have information on family members, dates, locations, addresses, cause of death, or things like careers, achievements, anniversaries, etc., I include those too to help with other's research. I will never post negative articles or anything that I feel will be offensive. I will use photographs from obituaries as long as the quality is decent or better. Sometimes, that's the only photo other relatives of the deceased will ever get to see. I only share to help.