This is Edna Ingles Gilkeson, daughter of Letitia Margaret Tate and John William Gilkeson.  She is my second cousin three times removed. Edna was a 1897 graduate of Mary Baldwin Seminary, receiving a diploma in "both the university course and in Elocution." In 1898. she was a teacher in Wytheville, VA.

At first, I couldn't find much about her and then I found the below correspondence from the American Consul.  Apparently, she left the U.S. in 1911 and, when she tried to return, her citizenship was questioned.

As Edna explains, she went to Alexandria, Egypt, in September 1911 "as a member of the Foreign Mission of the United Presbyterian Church of North America." and "remained with the Mission in Egypt until 1916, when I left and entered upon war work, helping to manage several tea rooms for soldiers in Alexandria and supporting myself."


Her mother wrote a note verifying her birth in the United States and a member of her church provided documentation of her birth, baptism, and membership in Bethel Presbyterian Church.

 

I then searched Passport Applications and found hers, which included the picture above.  I also found her on a passenger list returning to New York City from Plymouth, England.

In case you didn't know, Fold3 is offering free access to its entire World War II content (https://go.fold3.com/wwii/) through May 15, 2016. 

I took advantage of this offer to find the records related to my Uncle Bill's Missing Air Crew Report.  I had always heard that his plane went down and that he was reported missing.  Here's the official record of the event.  He was the Tail Gunner, William F. H. Finke mentioned in the report.  There are a couple of other documents in the folder, but these were the most interesting.  Somewhere around here, I have a copy of a Richmond Times Dispatch article about him being missing.  I will update the blog when/if I can find it.