I was born a historian, at least according to my Granny Kilgore. She was the first to observe that even as a baby I would often get quiet and appear to be listening to every word when the telling of family stories began. While I was never quite sure of Granny's clairvoyance, my earliest memories do include eavesdropping on the stories that arose during large and frequent family gatherings. My interest in history, especially family history, has also developed into a passion.

Various reasons have been given as to what drives people to search and document family history. For me, in part, it is a way to acknowledge and appreciate the lives of my ancestors. The most recent of those were Ozark Mountain pioneers who undeniably did their part to settle that region. An example being that, between them, my maternal and paternal grandparents had 29 children in Newton and Boone County, Arkansas during the late 19th and early 20th Century. Considering the era and location, it is somewhat of a miracle that they managed to raise 24 of those 29 to healthy adulthood. I am proud to be descended from them and grateful for so many wonderful aunts, uncles, and cousins. I also feel honored to be the last of the generations to have been born to and lived at the old Edmonson homestead at White Oak in Boone County.

From a young age I was taught reverence for graves and graveyards especially during the mandatory annual family attendance of Decoration Day. Apparently, Decoration Day in the Ozarks had been observed by my forbearers long before it had a name. The old timers had said there had forever been a day when kith and kin would gather on hallowed ground to pay their respect. Folks would recall and retell stories about the lives of those long passed and those newly so. Every grave was attended to and adorned with flowers and many additionally so with prayers and tears. Those days were the beginnings of my wanderings and wonderings among the gardens of stones.

Humans seem to have always thought history to be important and found ways to record it. Hence cave drawings, ancient oral narratives, writings, art, pictures, etc.. It often served as a means to identify as part of a tribe or to maintain heredity for chiefdoms, kingdoms, etc., as it continues to do today. Of course, graves and memorials are also records of history and Find A Grave contains a vast amount of information about those. By using that information, some have often discovered they are related to a historically famous person or perhaps unfortunately, an infamous person. Even learning the general history of a given time and place becomes more interesting if an ancestor can be linked to it.

As a child, I had supposed most of my family, whether living or dead, were either famous or bona fide saints. Such was the naivety of my mental recordings of family narratives up to that point. As a young adult, I was surprised to learn they were all just ordinary people subject to the same human frailties as everyone else. A few of them might even have been considered infamous or at least not good. A friend from Loch Lomond told me how his Scottish grandmother felt about their good and bad ancestral kin. She likened them to the wool threads that made up their distinctive clan tartan. Some had been light and some had been dark and some seemed to be shades of both but all had been woven together just so and the tartan wouldn't be the same otherwise.

As of the time of this writing, I am a new member of Find A Grave. I am also an old Air Force vet and DOD civilian who is retired and, in fellowship with other family historians, now has more time to devote to genealogical endeavors. Part of that will be documenting and posting (i.e. this website) a large amount of material of a very large family. By doing so we hope those who may be interested now or in the future may see it. I also appreciate that original Memorial Creators on Find A Grave have undoubtedly helped countless searchers. Their work is inspirational and I hope to follow their lead.

I am very grateful to those members of Find A Grave who have already transferred Memorials to me. Many of those went above and beyond by transferring the Memorials of distant family members and friends to me. I cannot thank you enough. I will be no less grateful to those whom I hope will grant my future memorial transfer requests.

Transfer of Memorials
I will gladly transfer a Memorial to anyone with little or no explanation in the hope they will honor it and keep it as accurate as possible. The exceptions being Memorials of relatives, friends, and a very few others of special significance. Understandably, I will be more reluctant to transfer those but will do so per Find A Grave guidelines.
To Request Transfer please do the following for each Memorial:
1) On the Memorial page click 'Suggest Edits'.
2) Scroll Down to and click on 'Suggest Other Corrections'.
3) Write your request In the 'Message' block and click 'Send'.

Edits
If you have information that you think should be included or corrected in a Memorial please do so in the SUGGESTED EDIT section of that individual Memorial. Please also keep in mind a couple of recommendations. One is that the information you provide be either positive, factual, or verifiable and hopefully all three. My intent is to keep the Memorials honored and as accurate as possible. Secondly, simply be kind and in return you can expect the same.

Pictures
Most of the pictures I have posted have come from the originals that were either inherited, donated, or in some cases taken by me. I have spent a lot of time with some of the very old and/or damaged ones using software in order to make them better. Many of the originals may also have inscriptions on the back which I photographed but did not post. If you copy any of the pictures please just credit my name which hopefully will also serve as a reference point for others who view them and want further info.

C. Lincoln Edmonson

I was born a historian, at least according to my Granny Kilgore. She was the first to observe that even as a baby I would often get quiet and appear to be listening to every word when the telling of family stories began. While I was never quite sure of Granny's clairvoyance, my earliest memories do include eavesdropping on the stories that arose during large and frequent family gatherings. My interest in history, especially family history, has also developed into a passion.

Various reasons have been given as to what drives people to search and document family history. For me, in part, it is a way to acknowledge and appreciate the lives of my ancestors. The most recent of those were Ozark Mountain pioneers who undeniably did their part to settle that region. An example being that, between them, my maternal and paternal grandparents had 29 children in Newton and Boone County, Arkansas during the late 19th and early 20th Century. Considering the era and location, it is somewhat of a miracle that they managed to raise 24 of those 29 to healthy adulthood. I am proud to be descended from them and grateful for so many wonderful aunts, uncles, and cousins. I also feel honored to be the last of the generations to have been born to and lived at the old Edmonson homestead at White Oak in Boone County.

From a young age I was taught reverence for graves and graveyards especially during the mandatory annual family attendance of Decoration Day. Apparently, Decoration Day in the Ozarks had been observed by my forbearers long before it had a name. The old timers had said there had forever been a day when kith and kin would gather on hallowed ground to pay their respect. Folks would recall and retell stories about the lives of those long passed and those newly so. Every grave was attended to and adorned with flowers and many additionally so with prayers and tears. Those days were the beginnings of my wanderings and wonderings among the gardens of stones.

Humans seem to have always thought history to be important and found ways to record it. Hence cave drawings, ancient oral narratives, writings, art, pictures, etc.. It often served as a means to identify as part of a tribe or to maintain heredity for chiefdoms, kingdoms, etc., as it continues to do today. Of course, graves and memorials are also records of history and Find A Grave contains a vast amount of information about those. By using that information, some have often discovered they are related to a historically famous person or perhaps unfortunately, an infamous person. Even learning the general history of a given time and place becomes more interesting if an ancestor can be linked to it.

As a child, I had supposed most of my family, whether living or dead, were either famous or bona fide saints. Such was the naivety of my mental recordings of family narratives up to that point. As a young adult, I was surprised to learn they were all just ordinary people subject to the same human frailties as everyone else. A few of them might even have been considered infamous or at least not good. A friend from Loch Lomond told me how his Scottish grandmother felt about their good and bad ancestral kin. She likened them to the wool threads that made up their distinctive clan tartan. Some had been light and some had been dark and some seemed to be shades of both but all had been woven together just so and the tartan wouldn't be the same otherwise.

As of the time of this writing, I am a new member of Find A Grave. I am also an old Air Force vet and DOD civilian who is retired and, in fellowship with other family historians, now has more time to devote to genealogical endeavors. Part of that will be documenting and posting (i.e. this website) a large amount of material of a very large family. By doing so we hope those who may be interested now or in the future may see it. I also appreciate that original Memorial Creators on Find A Grave have undoubtedly helped countless searchers. Their work is inspirational and I hope to follow their lead.

I am very grateful to those members of Find A Grave who have already transferred Memorials to me. Many of those went above and beyond by transferring the Memorials of distant family members and friends to me. I cannot thank you enough. I will be no less grateful to those whom I hope will grant my future memorial transfer requests.

Transfer of Memorials
I will gladly transfer a Memorial to anyone with little or no explanation in the hope they will honor it and keep it as accurate as possible. The exceptions being Memorials of relatives, friends, and a very few others of special significance. Understandably, I will be more reluctant to transfer those but will do so per Find A Grave guidelines.
To Request Transfer please do the following for each Memorial:
1) On the Memorial page click 'Suggest Edits'.
2) Scroll Down to and click on 'Suggest Other Corrections'.
3) Write your request In the 'Message' block and click 'Send'.

Edits
If you have information that you think should be included or corrected in a Memorial please do so in the SUGGESTED EDIT section of that individual Memorial. Please also keep in mind a couple of recommendations. One is that the information you provide be either positive, factual, or verifiable and hopefully all three. My intent is to keep the Memorials honored and as accurate as possible. Secondly, simply be kind and in return you can expect the same.

Pictures
Most of the pictures I have posted have come from the originals that were either inherited, donated, or in some cases taken by me. I have spent a lot of time with some of the very old and/or damaged ones using software in order to make them better. Many of the originals may also have inscriptions on the back which I photographed but did not post. If you copy any of the pictures please just credit my name which hopefully will also serve as a reference point for others who view them and want further info.

C. Lincoln Edmonson