While hunting for the rest of the Morning Reports for Battery A, 500th AAA Gun Battalion, I located a different format of the original roll, that offered a different option for downloading. (You can read how I searched for and download the Morning Reports of the 500th AAA Gun Battalion for September 1943’s at WWII Morning Reports using the NARA Catalog).
The interesting thing about these Morning Reports is that June and July for the same organization were filmed sequentially. This makes me curious if the reason may be related to the redesignation of the Battalion on 8 June, when the Coastal Artillery (CA) Battalions were redesignated Antiaircraft Artillery (AAA) Gun Battalions.
There was another surprise in store: these records could be downloaded in PDF files containing chunks of the Roll. (That means you do not have to download these one-page-at-a-time!)
I have been going through the results to determine if they relate to the Battalion that I am researching.
This took me to Image 1 (of 640). Not the links next to the thumbnails.
The links on the right side are navigation to the results.
I clicked on the link for Image # 643.
Even though my browser was not loading the PDF file, this page was different than others I had found. It had an option to download the PDF file.
Image # 644 looked familiar to me, based on the Morning Reports I had viewed for this organization. It was a page indicating the previous name of the organization before it had been redesignated.
The above image is the thumbnail view of the image below.
Of course, I downloaded the PDF file.
The filename was one of the 30 listed below the image, 85713825_1940-01-thru-1943-07_Roll-0711-04.pdf
Rather than have to download each image separately, the downloaded file contained the Morning Reports for June (beginning on 8 June) and July 1943 for Battery C, Battery D and the Medical Detachment of the 500th AAA Gun Bn.
The pdf files present the Morning Reports in chronological order, rather than the way the images are presented counting down (in the order they were photographed on the original roll).
Since this filename with -04 on the end suggested it might the 4th piece of Roll 711 (4 of 4), I took a chance and downloaded the file with -03 on the end.
Page 5 of the pdf had my answer! This file contained the Headquarters Battery of the 500th AAA Gun Bn
Both of these PDF files contained 125 images, so I know that when I locate these downloadable files in future, I will probably have to locate the rest of the organization by checking the files before or after the one that I am viewing.
Although I am not yet sure what triggers the conversion of individual images to being grouped together into PDF files for an organization, I will continue to look for these records and ask questions.
Minor update: I have located with two links Morning Reports for the 500th AAA Gun Battalion for June and July 1943, with each link leading to a page with a different type of file to download. One link is for downloading individual TIFF file downloads of each page, the other is for downloading PDF files.
WWII Morning Reports up to 1943 are now available on the NARA website and can be located through the NARA Catalog. (More Morning Reports are being added, as I have located ones for 1944, too.) For those wishing to research WWI Morning Reports, I recommend using them on Fold3.
Why search for the Morning Reports?
These organizational records can tell us where all the assigned soldiers were on a specific day, and the activities being done. They tell us when and how soldiers moved from place to place. They show when there were promotions, sick for duty and when they were sent to the hospital. They also show if soldiers were assigned to other organizations for temporary duty, or when they were permanently transferred to another organization. At a minimum, a soldier’s name will appear upon transferring in and transferring out of an organization. Memos may also be tucked into these reports.
For those of us whose Army ancestors’ personnel files burned in the fire in 1973, without leaving enough to be restored through technical means, these records are a key part of the reconstruction process.
Why search for them now?
In this blog post, I will describe how to search for the Morning Reports and download them. The process is not as easy as searching through fully indexed records, which will definitely come soon.
Given that fully indexed records will be easier to search, the question becomes whether or not to wait. For me, there have been some research questions that I have been wanting to answer, and these records hold many of those answers.
Know before you search
Currently Morning Reports up to 1943 (with at least some beyond that date) are available to view and download through the NARA Catalog. That means if the military organization was not formed until after the last year that was loaded to the catalog, you will not find the records. It also means that if your soldier joined an organization after the last year currently in the catalog, you will not see them in the records.
The WWII Morning Reports were filmed by month, then organization. That means you will have to hunt down the group of Morning Reports month-by-month.
The images were filmed in reverse chronological order. As you see the image number increase, you will see dates in reverse order, and the names of organization backward. For example, I was searching for Batteries within a Gun Battalion, so Btry D will appear before Btry A. When the download the files, you will see the number in the filename decreases.
There is a SPACER image separating reports between organizations, so look for them at the start and end of the month.
Searching for a name
This approach is not recommended. Searching the NARA Catalog can be awkward, and when I did try to search for a name the search results gave no feedback to help identify if a result would be of use to me. Searching these records by name will evolve over time, possibly on another existing genealogical website.
Searching by military organization
This blog post will focus on searching for the military organization for a soldier.
The search box on the page contains the text “Search within this Series.” This box is where you type your search terms.
Searching option: I found it easier to search the whole catalog. Of course, the effectiveness of this technique will depend on the keywords that are used. You can try it both ways and see which way works better for you! I searched from: https://catalog.archives.gov
I scrolled through the results to scout out what was available.
Since I did not review the result for the Red Wings in 1999, I cannot be sure what how the search terms 500th and AAA connected with the record. Perhaps the result included words about a 500th game or goal, and AAA Hockey teams. Most results seemed more relevant to my goal of finding promising Morning Reports.
NOTE: YOU HAVE TO CLICK ON THE SEARCH RESULTS to see the links to the results within the set of images where the search terms are located. (You cannot open in new tab and to see the images with the search results (the organization)! If you were to click to open in a new tab, you would be taken to the first image on the roll, with no navigational clues to get to the morning reports of the organization.
I thought that September 1943 would be interesting, as it was the first full month that the 500th AAA Gun Battalion was stationed in Greenland.
Clicking on this result takes you to the first image on the roll, which is most likely NOT what you are looking for. See the list of links to the search results located on the right.
Since we know that these rolls were filmed backwards, we know that Image 249 is the last image of the Battalion for September 1943. Click on the link: Image # 249.
Image #249 is the last page of September Morning Reports for all of the 500th AAA Bn CAC. It is the last page of the Medical Detachment’s September Morning Reports (Med Det 500th AAA Bn CAC), which is the report for 30 September 1943. Below is a close up of the top of the report.
Keep looking at the Organization field to get to the battery, company or other organization you are seeking.
From the page with the image, you can view and download the image to your computer. The Download button is on the lower left of the document viewing window.
You can also click on Extracted Text to open a window with text that has been extracted from the image, and can be copied. Although a few errors may be present, the quality of recognizing the typewritten characters is good.
I left the Extracted Text window open as I viewed image by image, going backward in the days of September 1943 so that I could collect the text. (I am keeping an Excel Spreadsheet with the image numbers, links and other data.)
At the bottom of the image viewing window, I used the Next button to see the previous Morning Report.
Since I went through the images sequentially, they began with the end of the Medical Detachment and ended with the beginning of the Headquarters and Headquarters Battery. The very last image was the beginning (because they were filmed backward), rewarding me with confirmation of what I knew about the 500th AAA [Gun] Bn parent and its sub units:
VARIATIONS ON SEARCH TERMS:
I did try a variety of search terms, experimenting with spelling out words, using more of the organization’s name, and the specific battery. Some of the results were for other battalions numbered in the 500’s (e.g. 502, 506). Definitely try different combinations of names and abbreviations when searching for military organizations.
What’s next for me
Downloading more of the 500th AAA Gun Battalion’s Morning Reports, searching both backward and forward to learn of their reorganizations. Of course, I will search for when my Father transferred in and out of the organizations to follow his history throughout his time in service.
I will also be trying to see if it might be more straightforward to search for the organization’s Morning Reports other ways.
If you have read this blog or heard my talks, you probably know that I have incorporated ChatGPT into my workflow. The basic version of ChatGPT supports a lot of the mundane tasks I do, and in the “Crash Course on ChatGPT and…” book series, I am sharing lessons I learned and the prompts that were helpful.
This time, the tasks go beyond genealogy and into learning a new language. ChatGPT has the potential to be immensely helpful when beginning to learn a new language. It can also explain the intricacies of a language to an English-speaking person in an understandable manner. I was excited about what ChatGPT could do to help the process, and wanted to share it in this brief book, “Crash Course on ChatGPT and Learning A Language.” (A softcover book will follow soon!)
Have you ever wanted a private tutor to help you learn a foreign language? Have you wished for lessons that were customized just for you? While nothing can replace being part of a community of people fluent in a language, ChatGPT can tap into its vast knowledge to provide you with a patient and tireless personal tutor- all you have to do is ask. It can even map out an entire course for you to follow. You can learn using the suggested lessons, then have ChatGPT test you with quizzes and puzzles, or converse with you (in text). It can even generate written content in a different language for you to read or translate. The book will get you started with the skills needed in prompt engineering when learning a new language. In the sections of this book, you will learn how to get an account and start using ChatGPT. Then you will find ideas on how to use ChatGPT to learn a language. Last comes suggested prompts that are for you to use to get started. Throughout the book there will be privacy considerations and potential limitations you might face.
Did you know that OpenAI allows users to generate images with a free account? At the time of writing this blog post, ChatGPT allows the use of DALL·E to generate two images per day with a free account.
All you have to do is ask, by typing in the prompt.
CAVEAT: Always research the ownership of any images generated in an AI tool before you consider publishing them.
PROMPT: Create an image of an airplane flying over art deco buildings
ChatGPT spent a little time and created an image.
At the bottom of the image, ChatGPT gave me some suggestions on what I might ask it to do next.
You can hover your mouse over the image to see the icons for giving feedback, or downloading the image as a WEBP file.
In one experiment ChatGPT showed me that it was creating an image, and then pronounced it complete, but there was no image. So I asked: where is it?
ChatGPT proceeded to ensure that this time I received the image. This second try to get the image to me did not count against my two images per day.
I tried another experiment. I generated two images. When ChatGPT told me “Let me know if you’d like to modify or add anything!” after the second image, I was not sure if that would count toward my daily limit of two images.
So I asked ChatGPT to modify the image, and was given that modified image. Then I received this alert:
Converting WEBP to JPG file format
You might be wondering how to convert a WEBP file to another format. The simplest way in Windows 11 is to open the image using the Photos app.
Select “Edit.”
An alert pops up that the Photos app can not save in WEBP format (which is what I wanted), so select Save Options -> Save as copy.
The dialog box that opened offers a choice of formats in which to save the image.
I chose the .jpg extension to save the image in a JPEG format.
WWII Military Research can have challenges for many reasons. Of course, the fire at the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) may have burned an army ancestor’s file. Unlike WWI records. Not many of the WWII records are online. This means a little more work is required in identifying which records will help and then traveling to the repositories.
We had known that my father was stationed in Greenland as a soldier during WWII, and that he traveled to Greenland by ship. He spoke very little about WWII, but that was some of the very little that he had shared.
His Report of Separation contains the date that he departed the Continental United States, in Box 36.
Date of Departure: 1 Aug 43
Destination: Greenland
Unlike the WWI ship manifests, the WWII ship manifests are not digitized and indexed. That means to use them you have to take a trip to NARA II in College Park, MD. The problem is that these records are stored by ship name, so you need to know the name of the ship to find the manifest. (In contrast, we can search using a soldier’s name to locate the ship manifests without knowing the ship names upon which our WWI ancestors traveled.)
Timelines are one of my favorite tools in genealogy. Of course, I have been busy building a timeline and gathering information in a binder dedicated to researching my father’s WWII experience. Without the ships’ names, there was some missing data in that timeline.
Having that timeline, I had explored this book for candidate ships carrying him to and from Greenland. I had identified potential ships and eliminated many.
The one clue that has been taking me places was a single sheet of paper found in my father’s personal belongings. It commemorated his crossing of the Arctic Circle. This certificate included his name, superior officers’ signatures, and the latitude of the Arctic Circle. Being concerned with operational security during wartime, this certificate had a blank line for the ship name as well as for the longitude where they crossed the circle. The day of August in 1943 was also blank. But there was one clue, his military organization: Btry ‘A’ 500 AAA Gun Bn
Morning Reports are a wonderful resource. Several years ago, I brought my research team with me to NARA St. Louis to view and copy the Morning Reports for the 51st Pioneer Infantry Regiment, in which my grandfather served in WWI. The WWI Morning Reports are now online, which makes them very convenient to gather and use. However, the WWII Morning Reports have not been digitized and require a visit or the use of a retrieval service.
Here, at last, was information about my father’s outgoing trip. On 1 August 1943, Battery (Btry) A of the 500th Antiaircraft Artillery (AAA) Battalion (Bn) of the U.S. Army Coast Artillery Corps (CAC) was onboard the SS Yarmouth.
Now, I could learn more about the USAT Yarmouth from Engineer Charles’ book.
At this point, it was time to slow down and record the collection of evidence that I had. One of the best ways to understand something is to undertake explaining it to others, so I created a document to share with my brother. This document contains the facts I know, so that they can be summarized in a research plan.
We remembered mentions of the outgoing convoy, and now I can investigate them. I will contact NARA to see if I can arrange to view the Yarmouth’s manifests, and perhaps consider looking at the deck logs. Both should be located at College Park, MD.
