The Mother's Pilgrimage or the Mother's March is one place to search if you have and ancestor who was killed in battle over seas. After WWI a list of mothers and widows of soldiers buried overseas in Europe was put together. These women were offered a trip to their loved one's grave. The names of those women entitled to make the pilgrimage were listed on records by 15 Nov, 1929. Some of the information contained into the records are; name of the widow or mother, relationship to the deceased, information regarding the decedent's name, unit, rank and cemetery, and the city and state where the mother or widow lived. There were 11,000 mothers and widows eligible for this list and if you are looking for a WWI veteran who died over seas this might be the place to search.

Gold Star Mothers were another facet of the soldiers who were buried overseas. In 1930 there were and additional 600 widows and mothers who were offered a two week trip overseas to their son's graves. The difference here was these mothers were of Afro American heritage. There were about 1,270 Afro-American's who died in the service of their country over seas. But only about 1/2 of them have mothers or widows who were entitled to make the pilgrimage. One thing that disqualified a widow was re-marriage, and some were just never located. On this pilgrimage all expenses were to be paid by the government. meals hotels taxi fares, tickets.

If you would like to search this data base, it is on line with Ancestry.com, if you are not registered with Ancestry.com they do have free trial periods from time to time. http://www.ancestry.com/search/rectype/inddbs/4224.htm

by Genzi, 12.22.2000