Andrew Lumish grabs his camera and heads over to Oaklawn Cemetery. He snaps pictures of the trees, the graves, his surroundings. He is immersed in the rich history of Tampa's first public burial grounds.

"William Ashley is buried here. Ashley Drive is actually named after him. He was the first clerk of the circuit court. He and his wife Nancy moved here in 1837. At the time of his passing in 1871, he left [Nancy] $500 so that she could be buried next to him when she passed," he recounted. "She died the next year. The townspeople objected -- even though they knew William's wishes -- to burying his wife next to him. The issue was that the marriage was interracial and Nancy was a slave. The townspeople said they had a designated area for slaves, murderers and pirates. John Jackson — Mayor of Tampa at the time — stopped the townspeople. He was good friends with William and didn't want Nancy away from her husband. They compromised and exhumed William's body so that both Nancy and William could be put in the same casket. Their Epitaph tells their entire story."

That is when he notices. All around him are graves covered in almost 150 years' worth of dust, mold, mildew and pollen.

"[Oaklawn] was beautiful but the monuments were in horrible condition," he remembered.

They were not just any monuments he was looking at either. Many of these were monuments from veterans. People that fought in World War 1, World War 2, the Civil War and many others. Their graves forgotten. Their granite and marble headstones caked with mud and made illegible.

No one else would do anything about this. He knew he had to do something.

He started with extensive research on the proper way to restore these monuments. He learned how national cemeteries like in Arlington take care of their monuments.

"I am self-diagnosed with OCD to the umpteenth degree. I am careful where I step and what I do", Lumish said. "I first soak the monuments in water and then spray them with D/2 Biological Solution — the only product utilized in cemeteries. I take a soft brush — no wire brushes — and I work my way from top to bottom. I use cotton or microfiber towels to take out the mud."

Lumish — dubbed The Good Cemeterian by ABC News anchor Brendan McLaughlin — visits cemeteries all over Florida and has restored more than 300 monuments. He spends close to 10 hours working on a monument. His process can take up to four months to complete.

While restoring the monument, nothing is running through his mind other than the task at hand. "All I think about is the restoration. There are times when certain tributes make me reflect but I will do that later," he said.

Once he is done with the monument he creates a connection with this person. He has his assistant look up the entire genealogy; everything from the time they are born to the very moment they die. He then shares the before and after of the monument along with a little biography on social media.

He says his first monument still looks like he completed it yesterday.

"Henry Fletcher," he remembered fondly.

He has read many soldiers' lives — many dealing with sorrow — and has connected with countless stories. The story of William Franklin Vaughn was especially touching for Lumish.

"[William Franklin Vaughn] just turned 18 when he told his parents he wanted to join the military during World War 1. He joined the coastguard in 1918 when the war was coming to an end. Germany was desperate to cripple England. All they had left was their submarine force where they destroyed ships bringing supplies to England. The USS Tampa was escorting ships from Portugal into England when Germany shot the ship with a torpedo, killing everyone," he said. "William was just nine months into his time when he died. I went to visit his monument and, right there behind me, I noticed three small gravestones with little lambs on the top — meaning these were children's graves. I checked their names and it turned out these were Vaughn's sisters. They all died years before Vaughn. None of the girls made it past 14 months. I imagine the conversation he had with his parents saying something like 'I want to join the military and fight', having them agree and then find out he is killed by the Germans only nine months in. All their kids now dead. I can't even put myself in their footsteps. The thought of having three children die and the fourth say he wants to be patriotic and then gets killed."

He learns about how many of these soldiers' children have died due to not having vaccinations like we have now. Being from New York, Lumish didn't think he'd ever be sympathetic to a Confederate soldier. After learning horrible stories about these men's lives, he found himself sympathizing with them. "You go 'wow these are people and they went through loss.'"

Other stories have made him question whether or not he should share them.

"There was one story about a soldier in the 1800's who — after a few days of winning the prestigious Medal of Honor — left his wife and children for another woman. He didn't pay child support. I really questioned whether I should talk about that. I finally decided I had to. I had to tell the whole story. The good, the bad and the indifferent. People actually wrote on Facebook saying how glad they were that I shared this story. They said it really made them reflect on their own lives. You may disagree with things that take place in history but we need to tell the story so that we do not repeat it."

Lumish says he is surprised with how much attention he has gotten since starting this. He did his first story with ABC and he thought it was just going to be a small story people wouldn't really pay much attention to. It turned out that 35 million people had read the story and he started getting letters and messages from all over.

"Many family members of these soldiers find me. Some plan in advance so we can meet and some meet me in surprise. They say things like 'this is my great great grandfather or uncle'. It is crazy. They will be from places like Calgary, Ontario, all over."

He takes the time to also restore the monuments of the children and wives of soldiers. He says he imagines the husband would want their wife and kids to shine as equally as he does.

As for when Lumish plans to stop? He says never.

"I enjoy helping. In life, we go through with blinders on. We say 'by the time I am 30 I want to be married with two children. By forty I want to be here and so on'. We have a game plan early on. What I like is I have been able to take my blinders off and find something that affects people all across the world. There is no better feeling. You read these personal stories. They are knee buckling and painful. These stories are what keep me going," he said. "I think people think they are unique in telling me their stories. They see my work and think 'I better let him know how much I appreciate it'. They aren't. The level of appreciation I get is astounding. The one thing people don't realize is I get those stories thousands of times a week. They do not realize how positive it is for me. They fuel me."