1945 Morning Reports Are Online…On Fold3

1945 morning reports are online now. There are on Fold3, and not in the NARA Catalog. Hold on, don’t panic! In this blog post, I’ll tell you how to search for the Morning Reports, AND remind you of ways to access Fold3 if you do not have a personal subscription. Then there is a little context and when they should appear in the NARA catalogue. Let’s start with where to find Fold3.

---

Where to Find Fold3

If you are in Maryland, you are set! (NOTE: The subscriptions at any library are not guaranteed to stay the same, so check the libraries yourself.)

Check to see if your Maryland county library has access to the Library Edition of Fold3. In Maryland, Anne Arundel County Public Library, Frederick County Public Libraries, Harford County Public Library, and Enoch Pratt Free Library offer it. You should have an Enoch Pratt Free Library card anyhow to use other subscriptions! (Check out www.prattlibrary.org/library-cards and see eCard to apply.) Google how to get a library card from one of these counties.  For example, I can use my Anne Arundel County Public Library card to access Fold3 from home, but you need to check if your library allows access from home.

If your county in Maryland does not offer access to Fold3, you can get a library card from any other county in Maryland and access it using that card number. Always be sure to get an actual library card number from the other country.

If you live outside of Maryland, check your county library’s genealogy resources for Fold3. If your county does not have it, check the policies for getting a library card from a library in your state that does have it. Speak to your local Librarian – they are incredibly helpful, and you might want to find out how to voice your opinion about what genealogy databases they should consider!

You can access Fold3 from NARA locations.

You can usually access Fold3 from FamilySearch Centers. (Check with the FamilySearch Center before visiting.)

---

How to Search Fold3 for 1945 Morning Reports

An easy way to get started is from the Fold3 homepage. What you’ll notice is that these records are 100% complete. They were published on Fold3 on August 19, 2026, and last updated September 30, 2026. (I’ll remind you what that last date might mean later on.)

NOTE: On Fold3, you can search in many different ways. This is just one of them.

Start at the Fold3 homepage. Type morning reports in the search box, and select Keywords from the drop-down menu.

The search results will have two Publications of Morning Reports. You’ll want to look at the publication: US, Morning Reports, 1945.

The search result to select is the Publication: US, Morning Reports, 1945.

Even though the description gives 1940-1946, the Publication name contains only 1945.

In the search box on the publication page, I entered my search terms: James C McMahon and selected Name from the dropdown menu when it appeared.

I had several results that were for this soldier right away.

Remember to use the Actions button for downloading them.

Clicking on the film strip icon lets you view the other Morning Reports. You have to download them one at a time.

---

NARA Digitization Agreements

(NOTE: I am not a lawyer, I don’t play one on TV, and this is not intended to be legal advice or opinion. The following contains links where you can learn the details of NARA’s Digitization Partnerships.)

Having digitization partners can speed up the effort to scan and get records online. It can stretch the financial and personnel resources of NARA. In this case, although Fold3 is a subscription database, it is one that can potentially be accessed through a library.

For a list of Microfilm Publications and Original Records Digitized by NARA’s Digitization Partners, https://www.archives.gov/digitization/digitized-by-partners.

NARA Principles for Partnerships to Digitize Archival Materials are at https://www.archives.gov/digitization/principles.html.

To learn more about the NARA Digitization Partnerships and to read the agreements, visit https://www.archives.gov/digitization/partnerships. In the The Ancestry.com Letter of Intent (2024) Item (2)(e)(iv) shows the WWII US Army Morning Reports.

This Publication was last updated on September 30, 2026, and it is 100% Complete. By the NARA digitization agreements with its digitization partners, the digitization partner is has exclusive use of the images for an embargo period, “the period of five years, which begins on the first of January after the end of the scanning phase for the Digital Images covered by a Project Plan or segmented portion of a series of Digital Materials in a Project Plan, within which all Digital Materials for that series or segmented portion created by Ancestry will be published exclusively by Ancestry.” (Ancestry.com Partnership Agreement)

“If resources permit, we will try to make the digital materials available in our online catalog within the same year they are no longer in the embargo period.” (“NARA Principles for Partnerships to Digitize Archival Materials”) So if the effort is complete, the embargo period should begin in January 2027, and we might possibly see the images loaded into the NARA Catalog sometime in 2031. BUT we did not see a year or years of Morning Reports on the Letter of Intent, so we don’t know if 1946 Morning Reports are part of that item. If they are, then start the clock when those go online.

For tonight I will travel back to 1945. Let me know how you do.

Search Changes for WWII Morning Reports

Several previous posts have been updated to reflect changes in the search experience for NARA’s Catalog. As a result, how to search for WWII Morning Reports online at NARA has changed. This post ties together new recommendations to help you find the reports you seek.

Note: At the time of writing this post, no Morning Reports for January 1945 or beyond are posted online on the NARA Catalog.

After updates to NARA’s Catalog software, I recommend searching within the Morning Report series. Click on the Search within this Series button in the Series Description page for Morning Reports, 1940-1946 at: https://catalog.archives.gov/search-within/85713825

This will take you to the page where your search is limited to the Morning Reports series.

Enter search terms or search phrases within double quotes in the Search within this Series box. Be sure that the double quote marks are straight, not curly. One thing that is different from past recommendations is that Boolean terms such as AND no longer work. The search terms or exact search phrases that are within quotes are just listed one after the other, which is a little easier.

Remember that you need to stay in that same tab of the browser to view links to where the search terms have been found within the results.

Remember to be flexible in your searches, and to try different terms.

Be looking for a revised edition of my Morning Report book very soon!

Good luck, and let me know how you do.

Changes When Searching The NARA Catalog

The way that you search the NARA Catalog has changed.

NARA has made changes to the backend of how Catalog searches are implemented. The change means that a search using Boolean operators between more than two phrases within double quotes will result in an error screen.

More simply explained, if you have been using quotation marks and Boolean operators (e.g. AND) in your searches, don’t! Strip out all operators and quotes because multiple search keywords are now automatically interpreted as having an AND between them. That means the search results will have all the keywords in them.

In the past, where I might have used in the search bar:

“Morning Reports” AND “500th AAA” AND “Greenland”

I would NOW enter this is the search bar:

Morning Reports 500th AAA Greenland

For all the search terms you find, remove the double quotes and the Boolean operator AND and you should be error free.

Top 5 WWI /WWII Memorial Day Research Resources

As we pause to remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice while serving our country, consider learning more about those in our family.

After some thought, these are the resources I recommend to get you started or move you farther along on your research into WWI and WWII fallen service members. There are links to our blog posts with how-to’s for researching military members who fell in WWI and WWII. There is also a link to our post about an archived reference about America’s wars. With the link to the partially digitized WWII NARA record series for WWII deaths, think about how you might use the files even if the specific file you seek has not been digitized yet. Take what you learn from these resources as directions to dig deeper into more detailed sources.

Researching Soldiers who died during World War I  

https://aweekofgenealogy.com/researching-soldiers-who-died-during-world-war-i/

This post gives brief background about what happened to soldiers who fell during the Great War and some steps for researching them.  

The U.S. Military Records That Never Burned

https://aweekofgenealogy.com/the-u-s-military-records-that-never-burned/

Yes, many of the US Army personnel records were lost in the 1973 fire, BUT the original records that were used to construct them were not. WWI Death Files / WWII Individual Death Personnel Files (IDPF) are discussed in this post.

Tales from Morning Reports: From Duty to Death

https://aweekofgenealogy.com/tales-from-morning-reports-from-duty-to-death/

In addition to basing a story on WWII Morning Reports, this post describes what records were consulted that added to the story. The resources that were used are listed.

Reference from the Department of Veterans Affairs

https://aweekofgenealogy.com/reference-from-the-department-of-veterans-affairs/

This post describes a VA source for summary statistics about America’s Wars. It contains a link to an archived copy of this interesting resource.

Individual Deceased Personnel Files

https://catalog.archives.gov/search-within/297287480?sort=title%3Aasc

The NARA Catalog contains the IDPF files that have begun to be digitized. These files contain the records that were generated and correspondence about the dead WWII service member. In the case that your ancestor’s file has not been digitized, you might still choose to search these files.

You can search from the main catalog for “Individual Deceased Personnel Files” AND a name (or variations) in quotation marks for a mention of them in someone else’s file. If they died on a ship, you might find locate a file for those who died on the same ship and read the common information that would be in all their files, which should include the names of all the personnel involved

For example, start at:

https://catalog.archives.gov

and insert an individual’s name or name of a ship, using search terms such as:

“Individual Deceased Personnel Files” AND “USS Helena”

For context search for those who died in the same location. For example a search from the NARA Catalog:

“Individual Deceased Personnel Files” AND “Greenland”

returned digitized files for individuals who died on USAT Dorchester. These files included details about the ship and its sinking. First person sworn statements from survivors are also included in this file.

BONUS!

Do not forget to search the Veterans Legacy Memorial to find those interred in veterans cemeteries in the US and abroad.

https://www.vlm.cem.va.gov

Of course, do not forget to search Findagrave for those fallen service members who returned to the United States.

https://www.findagrave.com

More WWII Morning Reports in the NARA Catalog

It should not be a surprise that to anyone who has read my most recent book Finding and Using U.S. Army WWI and WWII Morning Reports: A Research Guide for Historians and Genealogists or seen my presentation about Morning Reports that I periodically check the NARA catalog. Specifically, I have been checking to see if reports later than July 1944 have been uploaded. Today I searched, and success!

Changes to how to search the NARA Catalog are described in Changes When Searching The NARA Catalog.

As a reminder, I search from the main catalog page at https://catalog.archives.gov/ so that I can benefit from the links to the search terms in the results. To see if more Morning Report are available I search for terms such as: “Morning Reports” AND “October 1944”

This time there were results! I kept searching, and Morning Reports up to December 1944 are available. (Search terms: “Morning Reports” AND “December 1944”) I did check for any from 1945, there were no results (yet!).

Of course, I did search for my father, by name and by serial number. This time I did find a mention of him. My brother was the first to know of this find, grateful that this was not a middle-of-the-night call!

For tonight, I will share that SGT James C. McMahon appeared in a Morning Report for 13 October 1944, still in Narsarssuak, Greenland. July 1944 had left me with a cliffhanger, and this record provided data about two military organizations with which he served after the 500th AAA Gun Battalion left Greenland.

I will post about my continuing research as I use Morning Reports to reconstruct my father’s WWII service. From here, I will be busy moving forward and backward in time to track what was happening in Greenland.

Thank you to NARA! Good luck searching, and let me know how you do!

Researching Morning Reports

Have you every heard that you should be using Morning Reports?

A book has finally arrived to show how you can travel back in time through locations and events, day by day, with a U.S. Army soldier or organization during WWI or WWII military service.  With Morning Reports, you can overcome and potentially go beyond burned Army personnel files! Pursue references for a specific soldier, then leverage daily records when not named or identified.

This book introduces techniques for locating Morning Reports and what is and is not included. WWI and WWII formats are described in detail, with examples allowing the reader to experience the WWII Morning Report language and abbreviations by utilizing the web, Fold3 (WWI) and the NARA catalog (WWII). The reader will discover tips for locating elusive reports and strategies for working around missing records. Useful case studies combine reports across parts of a military organization and place a soldier into the context of history.

This book contains a bonus chapter about the daily reporting for other branches of the military!

Historians will find the search techniques and pointers to additional records useful as they track a soldier or organization through a world war.

Our new book is available on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Finding-Using-U-S-Morning-Reports/dp/B0FPBDVN9M

If you are interested in having Dr. McMahon speak at your society about Morning Reports, or other presentations, please contact us: https://aweekofgenealogy.com/contact-us/

Topics at: https://aweekofgenealogy.com/presentations/

Reviews are at: https://aweekofgenealogy.com/comments/