Site Celebrates Veterans Day with Free Access to Entire U.S. Military Records CollectionPROVO, UT (Nov. 11, 2009) – Ancestry.com today added more than 600 Navy cruise books to its online collection of military records to commemorate Veterans Day. This historic effort is the result of an agreement between Ancestry.com, the world’s largest online resource for family history, and the United States Navy. As part of the agreement, Ancestry.com set up scanners on location at the Navy Department Library in Washington, DC, and has spent several months digitizing the cruise books for this occasion.
The collection of Navy cruise books, available exclusively online at Ancestry.com, represents nearly 40 years of cruises following World War II (1950-1988) and chronicles an estimated 450,000 servicemen deployed at sea during that time. Styled after yearbooks, the cruise books include the names and photographs of individuals who served aboard the ship and highlight not only significant milestones that took place during the cruise, but also the day-to-day life on board ship. While not every Navy cruise was documented in a cruise book, the Navy Department Library has on file an estimated 3,500 cruise books, which Ancestry.com plans to digitize and add to this collection over time.
“When Ancestry.com approached the Navy about digitizing these cruise books for online access, we were thrilled,” said Captain Charles Todd Creekman, Jr., USN (Ret.) Executive Director of the Naval Historical Foundation. “A cruise book offers an insider’s perspective into what these sailors experienced, and the strong camaraderie they established, while serving their country at sea.”
The Navy cruise books are part of Ancestry.com’s U.S. Military Collection, which includes 100 million names that span more than three centuries of American military service.
“When you have a family member who has served in the Armed Forces, you can’t help but be proud,” said Tim Sullivan, CEO of Ancestry.com. “This Veterans Day, we’re celebrating America’s military heroes of yesterday and today and invite every American with military roots to see if they can learn something new about their family member on Ancestry.com.”
In honor of America’s military heroes, the entire U.S. Military Collection on Ancestry.com can be searched free through Nov. 13. To begin exploring your family’s military heritage, visit www.ancestry.com/military.
About Ancestry.com Inc.
Ancestry.com is an online resource for family history and has digitized and put online over 4 billion records over the past twelve years. Ancestry users have created over twelve million family trees containing over 1.25 billion profiles. Ancestry.com has local Web sites directed at nine countries, including its flagship website at http://www.ancestry.com/.
Has to be a joke! They don't show my dad! He served 1950-1963 in Navy and was on several ships. Tried every variant. ZERO
Posted by: W. David Samuelsen | November 11, 2009 at 04:44 AM
as a disabled navy vet i know that ships records and logs can be helpful in supporting claim evidence with the veterans admin. this info should be shared with our vets and our vet organizations. thanks!
Posted by: Cece Howell | November 11, 2009 at 08:48 AM
One's name is required. No way Jose! Free isn't always free without conditions.
Posted by: GMF | November 11, 2009 at 10:07 AM
David Samuelsen, you didn't read the article. It says ancestry has only posted a little more than 600 of the approximately 3,500 available cruise books. And not every Navy cruise was documented in a cruise book".
Posted by: Larry Parker | November 11, 2009 at 10:28 AM
Not all of the cruise books are included in this database. If you click on "browse individual records", a box will appear with an option to "select a ship". You can scroll through the names of the ships -- most of them are "A to C" names. Looks like there is still a lot of scanning to be done.
Posted by: Janet Geronime | November 11, 2009 at 10:38 AM
Needs to be clarified: First it is 1950 (not 1940) to 1988
Second: it is only A-c of the alphabet, which means no WW2 veterans, yet
Posted by: Donna Bray | November 11, 2009 at 12:58 PM
I found my deceased Uncle and a picture of one of the ships he served on in about 90 seconds! WOW!! Thanks for the link! A blessed and safe day to all our veterans.
Posted by: Sharon | November 11, 2009 at 08:16 PM