Using Navy Cruise Books in Your Research

If you have a military service member in your family, then you might know about cruise books. In my home, there is a USMC Cruise Book that captures stories and images about my husband’s squadron’s overseas deployment and the trans-Pacific flights to get there and back.

Fold3 has a Publication that contains these books: US, Navy Cruise Books, 1918-2009. Whether you are researching a Sailor or Marine who served on a ship, or an Army soldier who traveled by ship, you might want to give this resource a try.

As much as these book are part of the story of each crew member on a ship, they are tell part of the story of anyone who traveled on these ships. That means that these books also relate to the U.S. Army troops who were transported. Even though the service member’s name will not appear, the name of the military organization to which they were assigned will.

If you know the ship’s name you can search for her in this Publication. You can also search for the name of a military organization, as well as the names of Sailors and Marines.

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Example: WWI

In the Home Page search box, I entered the keywords: wwi cruise books. That brought me to the Search & Browse page.

I selected the Publication that is the first result.

Knowing that the 51st Pioneer Infantry Regiment had traveled on USS Kroonland, I entered the ship’s name in the search box on the Publication page, as a keyword. (Searching for a ship by name is not suggested, but you can always experiment.)

Another option would be to search for the keyword: Kroonland on the Home Page.

Once you find one page of the book in the search results, you can find the rest of the book from the a viewer page by clicked on the filmstrip icon.

View all the pages where the search result appears.

You can also search within these images.

There were four pages about the Atlantic crossing that was made by 51st Pioneer Infantry Regiment (except Company A).

Fold3 did not have cruise books for the other crossings made by the 51st Pioneers.

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The way that a search term is used can affect the results of the search. As you type in a search term, facets appear for: Keywords, Name and Place. (If you type in a number, Year would also appear.) Select the facet from the dropdown menu to let Fold3 how to use the search term.

• Kroonland as a Keyword returned pages from the cruise book.
• Kroonland as a Place refers to a Station, and search results are returned for people stationed on USS Kroonland.
• Kroonland as a Name returned no results.

Kroonland as a place refers to a Station, which means that the results might contain Sailors or Marines who were assigned to USS Kroonland.

To download an image, use the Action menu. You will be given the choice to download the Entire Page, or Select a Portion. (I recommend selecting the Entire Page for context.)

Each image of a page needs to be downloaded separately. You can download the pages that interest you, or for context, all the pages of the book. If there have been any annotations made to the page, you will have the option to download the image with or without annotations made by other users. Although I consider the annotations to be important part of this platform, when I downloaded images with the annotations they appeared across the page, obscuring parts of it. The filename for an image that included the annotations also had a less than useful name. I recommend keeping track of the annotations that apply to your search targets separately.

You will be asked to select the download format. JPG is always offered, but in some cases there is the option to download the image as a PDF file.

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You can also browse from the Publication page where you can filter on the names of the ships. Scroll down in the Ship (Classification) Column to view the names of the ships included in the Publication.

Select the Description tab to see the Ship classifications.

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You can also search for the names of Sailors and Marines that appear in the pages of these cruise books. In the Publication page search box, or on the search page.

Example: Vietnam War

The second result included my cousin’s name. He died in the fire on USS Forrestal 29 July 1967. Two pages listed the 134 sailors who died in that fire. The prior page was in memoriam of those men, and included “The Captain’s Prayer.”

Clicking on the filmstrip icon to see the rest of any cruise book is worthwhile. In this case, the events of the day were documented. Among the pages were the messages sent from the other ships, including a British ship and a message relayed from the Brazilian Navy, with sympathies and specific offers of help.

Good luck using these! Let me know how you do.

WWII A Pocket Guide to…

NOTE: Historical Content Advisory: The World War II publications discussed in this blog post reflect the language, attitudes, cultural assumptions, and stereotypes of the era in which they were written. Some descriptions of nationalities, ethnic groups, religions, and local customs may be considered inaccurate, offensive, or inappropriate by today’s standards. These materials discussed and linked to are presented in their original historical context for educational and research purposes. Their inclusion does not constitute an endorsement of the views expressed, nor should the guides should be evaluated as evidence of contemporary American military perspectives. Rather, they provide valuable insight into how the U.S. military portrayed other countries and cultures to American service members during World War II.

If you enjoy reading materials from WWII, you may find these short books especially rewarding. They offer a glimpse into how these places were described and understood at the time. If you are researching a soldier who was stationed in a location featured in one of these guides, consider that they may have held a copy of the very same book, turned its pages, and used its descriptions to explore unfamiliar surroundings. Reading one today offers a small but tangible connection to the world as they experienced it.

The series titled A Pocket Guide to…(1942-1945) and A Short Guide to…(1942-1944) were small, government-issued booklets prepared during WWII Published by the U.S. War and Navy Departments. These guides were intended to help servicemen understand unfamiliar cultures, communicate with local populations, observe local customs, and represent the United States appropriately overseas. They were written in a conversational, accessible style to introduce American military personnel to the countries where they might be stationed. These two publications are frequently grouped together in library catalogs under the Army Service Forces, Special Service Division.

Rather than being conventional tourist guides or military field manuals, they offered practical travel information, cultural orientation, elementary language instruction, historical background, and guidance on personal behavior. The booklets contained information about a country’s history and geography which included political circumstances. There was information about cultural customs which addressed local traditions, social expectations, etiquette, religion, and behavior that Americans of the time might find unfamiliar. The guides contained brief language help with common expressions, pronunciation guides, and practical vocabulary. Soldiers are challenged to build relationships to help German people join the world’s useful citizens by their behavior.

Although they contain stereotypes there is often interesting advice that addresses respect for the people who are met included in the content. The reader was advised to practice good military conduct by interacting respectfully with civilians, avoiding misunderstandings, and maintaining goodwill.

The Pocket Guide to Germany, published in 1944, begins in a serious tone with its first sentence: “Whether you fight your way in, or march in to occupy Germany under armistice terms, you will be doing a soldier’s job on the soil of the enemy.” It contains material about being vigilant, German propaganda about America and Americans, considerations when marrying a foreign girl, and a larger language guide

Some of the pocket guides are similar to the format of the small American Service Edition (ASE) books. You can read more about them in our blog post What WWII Military Ancestors Were Reading. These were truly touring oriented books for military personnel, with titles such as: Pocket Guide To The Cities Of Belgium And Luxembourg, Pocket Guide To Paris And The Cities Of Northern France, Pocket Guide To The Cities Of Southern France, Pocket Guide To Italian Cities, Pocket Guide To The Cities Of Denmark, and Pocket Guide To The Cities Of Norway. All of these had the same Introduction:

Click to see a transcription

ATTENTION

About the only thing in this booklet that can be guaranteed is the terrain. The rest of it is up to the fortunes or misfortunes of war. Many of the towns and cities described here have been bombed and shelled by us as we approached, and shelled by the enemy as he retreated. And many of them will still show the marks of the destruction visited upon them when these lands were being conquered and occupied by the Germans.

The short historical notes and city plans concerning most of the towns are correct as of the outbreak of the war. But the changes of war were still happening in many places when this pocket guide went to press.

You may find that art treasures described and located in these pages have been looted or destroyed, and it may be years before those that can be restored are sights to see again. On the other hand, some of them, by a stroke of good fortune, may be left intact and you will be able to enjoy them.

At the end of the Introduction to these versions was a statement encouraging service members to see what they could now, rather than pay more money to travel after the war:

Click to see a transcription

Anyhow, so far as your military duties permit, see as much as you can. You’ve got a great chance to do now, major expenses paid, what would cost you a lot of your own money after the war. Take advantage of it.

Quite a few can be located on the internet, with a good selection at the Internet Archive. The link to our Week Of Genealogy list is https://archive.org/details/@awog/lists/5/wwii-a-pocket-guide-to-

The Navy History and Heritage Command hosts Pocket Guide to New Guinea and the Solomons at: https://www.history.navy.mil/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/p/pocket-guide-new-guinea-solomons.html

Others can be read at HathiTrust, but to download the whole book you need to be affiliated with a member institution.

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.

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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.)

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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.

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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.

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

Finding WWII Rosters Online at NARA

For researching a WWI or a WWII soldier, have you considered using the Rosters at NARA? They are located Series: Muster Rolls and Rosters, November 1, 1912–December 31, 1943 within Record Group 64. This blog post will show where to search for rosters, including how to use an online finding aid for finding WWII rosters that will make your task much easier.

The rosters are arranged in three subseries within Muster Rolls and Rosters, November 1, 1912–December 31, 1943:

• Muster Rolls, November 1, 1912 – June 30, 1918 and Enlisted and Officer Rosters, July 1, 1918 – December 31, 1939,
• Officer Rosters, 1920 – 1939,
• Army and Army Air Force (Air Corp) Rosters, 1940 – 1943

The Series is located at: https://catalog.archives.gov/id/85713803

There are 625 pages of links viewing on this Series webpage, so you can browse for an organization.

You can also search within the Series for a soldier’s name, military serial number, or even an organization: https://catalog.archives.gov/search-within/85713803

When researching WWII soldiers, there is an online finding aid to streamline the process: https://www.archives.gov/st-louis/archival-programs/army-rosters-1940-1943

On this page, you will find information about how to locate WWII rosters organized by:

• Army enlisted service members
• Army officers
• Army Air Force (Air Corp) enlisted service members
• Army Air Force (Air Corp) officers

Within those categories, the rosters are organized by type of reporting unit.

To use the finding aid, click on the plus sign to expand the link to locate the type of unit. There will be box numbers shown, but some entries will contain links to digitized rosters, or to a pdf that contains the National Archives Identifier (NAID) in NARA’s Catalog to use when locating the online rosters.

In this example, I am searching for the rosters for a soldier in Battery A of the 500th AAA Gun Battalion, so clicked on the plus sign next to “Chemical and Antiaircraft Artillery” to expand the section.

I licked on the link for “Antiaircraft Battalion – Boxes 246-348.”

The link led to a PDF file with the Catalog NAID.

https://www.archives.gov/files/antiaircraft-artillery-battalion-index.pdf

The PDF file shows that the rosters are stored by increasing NAID numbers, by the number of the organization.The first page contains the column headers. (They are not repeated on subsequent pages.)

Scrolling down to the beginning of page 4 of the PDF, I find Btry C, 500th AAA Gn Bn, 1943. That means Roll Number 307 (2 of 3), which begins with Battery C of that Battalion has NAID Identifier 371744319.

Since the soldier is in Battery A, I will want to check the previous part of the roll, listed at the bottom of page 3 of the PDF, NAID 371744318, Roll Number 307 (1 of 3). I would expect that rosters for Battery A would be closer to the end of the Roll. (Remember to use the Chrome Browser to see the images in order, as Firefox has a documented bug of showing images in reverse order.)

I searched from the NARA Catalog Home Page: https://catalog.archives.gov

There is a blank page between the months, so I began by checking the image after the blank pages in the image range of 800-900.

I recommend building a list or a table with the information for the organization, to keep track of links. (Note: Organization and Link appear in the same column for readability. In my Excel worksheet, they appear in separate columns.)

I would want to continue to go backwards chronologically to collect the rosters for the time the soldier I am researching was in the Battery.

Another option, as described in our blog post about locating WWII Morning Reports in PDF Files can also make the task easier. Search the NARA catalog for: 371745320, which is the NAID for the final part of the Roll Number 307, part 3 of 3.

From there, the PDF files containing groups of 125 images from the Roll can be downloaded. Images for Battery A can be found in the files Roll-0307_07.pdf and Roll-0307_08.pdf

Give it a try and let me know how you do!