Georgia McCleskey didn’t usually carry dirt in her suitcase when she traveled. But, on a steamy July afternoon in 1930, she climbed aboard a train in Fort Worth, Texas with both dirt and flower seeds tucked into her luggage. Before she left home, she dug up the dirt from a flower bed that her son Joe used to tend. She didn’t mind giving up the space in her suitcase for her unusual cargo because she was on a mission. Her mission was to plant the seeds, along with the soil, on her son’s grave in France. Joe McCleskey, an Army private, died in battle on 1 November 1918, just ten days before the Armistice. Georgia wasn’t the only woman carrying dirt in her luggage. Mary Crouch had a dozen jonquil bulbs and a box of dirt in her suitcase, too. The jonquils always bloomed on her son Hutt’s birthday. Mary wanted the flowers to bloom again on Hutt’s grave.
Georgia and Mary joined more than 6,600 mothers and widows who journeyed to Europe to visit the graves of their sons and husbands who died in World War I. These women participated in the Gold Star Mothers’ pilgrimages. Most of them traveled to Europe in 1930, although the final pilgrimage wasn’t completed until 1933.
The idea of a government-funded pilgrimage for families to visit the European graves of American servicemen emerged practically before the ink had dried on the peace treaty. Congressman Fiorello La Guardia submitted the first bill in May 1919. His bill wasn’t seriously considered and it failed. The idea, however, didn’t fade away. With heavy lobbying by the Gold Star Mothers Association, along with consistent press coverage, more bills appeared on the legislative agenda. Finally, in 1929, Congress passed a bill authorizing the War Department to undertake the massive project of arranging a trip to Europe for thousands of women.
Suggesting that this venture was a logistical nightmare would be putting it mildly. The project fell into the laps of the Army Quartermasters Corps, and they deftly shifted gears from outfitting thousands of soldiers to acting as travel agents and chaperones for thousands of elderly women. They planned every detail for each individual woman from the moment she stepped out of her front door. Roundtrip transportation to Europe, special passports, lodging, meals, sightseeing, ceremonies, medical attendants, interpreters, photographs at gravesites, extra bathrooms at the cemeteries – they tried to anticipate every possible need and snafu that might arise.
Overall, the whole unprecedented affair proved to be a smashing success. Like most ambitious undertakings, though, there were some incidents and controversy. Several women died on the trip, which wasn’t totally unexpected since most of the women were over 60 years old. Strict eligibility requirements left some women without a ticket to ride, although the rules were relaxed before the program ended. African-American women were segregated into separate groups and didn’t get the same swanky accommodations that the other women received. But in the end, most of the women had a trip of a lifetime. Yet, the purpose of the pilgrimage wasn’t overshadowed by visits to the Louvre and shopping in Paris. When Etta Christian returned from her trip she said, “It gave me peace and happiness . . . that at last I could weep at his grave since there was nothing else I could do for my baby.”
Whenever the government is involved, you can practically guarantee mounds of paperwork. And, where there are mounds of paperwork, there are equal mounds of family history tidbits. Even if the mother or widow of your WWI family member didn’t make the trip to Europe, there may be a file filled with family information.
The Quartermasters Corps determined that more than 17,000 women were eligible for the pilgrimage. The documents related to the pilgrimages are filed in the servicemen’s Burial Case Files. These files are part of Record Group 92, Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, and are housed at the National Archives in College Park, Maryland. These case files can be hefty; the file for Missouri soldier Wilford A. Fair contains 200 pages. The documents concerning the Gold Star Mothers are filled with fascinating and occasionally heart-wrenching details. The files contain many, many pieces of correspondence regarding the women’s current circumstances, eligibility for the trip, itineraries, and an abundance of family clues including names, birth, death, and marriage dates, and addresses. Many of the women wrote sorrowful letters about their lost sons and husbands and how they wished they could go on the trip, but poor health and other obligations prevented them from going.
After mining the rich Burial Case Files, check historical newspapers on Ancestry.com. The pilgrimages were big news stories and many local papers interviewed women both before and after their trips. A number of communities sponsored receptions, and even parades, as send-offs for the women. The first round of trips in 1930 generated the most press, although the trips in subsequent years still received some coverage as well.
Don’t forget to check ship passenger lists on Ancestry.com. The pilgrims traveled by ship and you’ll find clusters of women with their passports identified as “Gold Star Passports.”
In December of 1929 the War Department sent a list of women eligible to make the trip to Congress. This list was printed as the List of Mothers and Widows of American Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines Entitled to Make a Pilgrimage to War Cemeteries in Europe. You can find an index of this document on Ancestry.com . Not every Gold Star woman is in this index, though, as several thousand more women were later added to the eligibility list.
In addition to creating a plethora of documents that make genealogists giddy, the Gold Star Mothers pilgrimages produced a fascinating chapter in our history. As we remember all of our veterans on Veteran’s Day, the saga of the mothers’ pilgrimages reminds us of the families that our fallen heroes left behind.
For more information on requesting the records of Gold Star Mothers from the National Archives, click here.
Click here to search the U.S. World War I Mothers' Pilgrimage, 1930 on Ancestry.com.
Other articles in the 09 November 2009 Weekly Discovery:
> Finding Photographs for your Family History
> Family History Tip: Revisit Websites
> Photo Corner
