During the War, Mrs. Siebold spent her time visiting with returning service men recuperating in local hospitals. Mrs. Siebold received letters from her son regularly, but then one day those letters stopped. Because, technically, her son was not part of the American military forces, Mrs. Siebold could not get information about what, if anything had happened to him. On Christmas Eve, 1918, a knock at the door came and a package that read, "Effects of Deceased Officer, First Lieutenant, George Vaughn Siebold, Attached to the 148th Squadron, BRFC." No other information was provided. Months later, Mrs. Siebold received the official news that her son had been killed in aerial combat in August of 1918. This experience led Grace to build a community of mothers who had lost sons in the war. In 1928, twenty-five mothers established the national organization, American Gold Star Mother, Inc., which is still in existence today.
The Gold Star Mothers came to be known as such because during the war, families would place a service flag in their window that indicated with blue stars how many members of their family were serving in the war. If a family member was killed during their service, a gold star was placed over his blue star to symbolize the honor and glory that should be given to such a serviceman who gave his life. For more information on the organization, the American Gold Star Mothers, Inc., see their web site at http://www.goldstarmoms.com/agsm/Home/index.htm.
Gold Star Pilgrimages
World War I saw 100,000 American servicemen who were killed and buried overseas.The U.S. government gave families a choice: they could bring their loved one home for a burial locally or could have their family member reburied in a cemetery yet to be built in Europe. While many of the families chose to have their loved one reinterred in the United States, 33,000 chose to have their family members buried in Europe. In the 1920's, mothers started lobbying the government to fund pilgrimages to their loved ones graves in Europe. While the wealthy could afford to travel to Europe, the trip was too costly for many of the American women who longed to see the resting place of their son or husband. After 10 years and the involvement of such people as U.S. Representative and future New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, the mothers got their wish.
On February 7, 1930, in the Red Room of the White House, President Woodrow Wilson's wife Lou reached into a silver bowl and pulled out one of 54 envelopes. Each envelope contained the name of a state or oversees territory. The order the envelopes were picked would determine what order the women would take their pilgrimage. The first state picked was Nebraska. Three months later 231 women left for Europe. From 1930-1933 the United States government conducted a series of trips for the mothers and widows of fallen servicemen. Once at the cemetery, the government provided a wreath of flowers, a picture of the woman at her loved one's grave and three to four days of privacy. By the end of this program in August 1933, approximately 6,693 women made the gold star pilgrimage abroad. For information about the pilgrimage, see the Quartermaster's Review at http://www.qmfound.com/war_mother.htm or the NARA Prologue article, "World War I Gold Star Mothers Pilgrimages, Part 1" by Constance Potter at http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/1999/summer/gold-star-mothers-1.html. For more information on the pilgrimages, see the web site for the documentary, Gold Star Mothers: Pilgrimages of Remembrance at http://www.will.uiuc.edu/pressroom/goldstarmothers.htm.
Curious as to whether your grandmother or great grandmother was a Gold Star Mother? Two government resources will help you answer that question. First, for soldiers who died overseas during World War I, the Graves Registration Service created a file. These files also contain records of the Gold Star Mothers. Unfortunately, the records are not indexed and are not available on microfilm, but they are organized alphabetically by surname. This information and other World War I records may be obtained through the Military Textual Reference Branch, National Archives, 8601 Adelphi Road, College Park, MD 20740-6001. With your request, include your daytime phone number. This is not the address to request Service Records. Ancestry.com's Military Collection also contains a database of World War II and Korean War soldiers who were interred overseas. This list may not be complete and is taken from National Archives Record Group 330.
To obtain a list of eligible mothers and widows for the gold star pilgrimages consult, List of Mothers and Widows of American Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines Entitled to Make a Pilgrimage the War Cemeteries in Europe, 71st Cong., 2d sess., House Document No. 140 (GPO: Washington, D.C., 1930). To find a copy of this list consult a library that is a Federal Depository Library. Federal Depository Libraries include some public libraries and university libraries. To find a Federal Depository Library near you, click on http://www.gpoaccess.gov/libraries.html . For more information about World War I service records, consult the National Archives article, "Obtaining Copies of World War I Records" at http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/1999/summer/gold-star-mothers-2.html. This list is also available on microfilm from the Family History Library, microfilm #262704.
For those with veteran family members or ancestors who died oversees, the American Battle Monument Commission's web site, American Battle Monuments Commission, provides information about the 24 American military cemeteries oversees and the approximately 125,000 dead who are interred there. This web site not only lists the cemeteries but also has burial listing databases for soldiers from the Mexican War, Civil War, Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II, and the Korean War. For those with family members interred overseas, the American Battle Monument Commission's web site has a form that you can fill out to request a photograph or your loved ones tombstone. You can also order flowers for the grave through this web site. Other service are available and are detailed on their web site.