Aviation Boatswain's Mates Association

From Pull Together Newsletter.

600 Cruise Books Online
Ancestry.com, in cooperation with the Naval History and Heritage Command (NHHC) and Naval Historical Foundation, added more than 600 Navy cruise books to its online collection of military records at the start of November 2009.

This effort came about as a result of agreements involving NHHC, NHF, and Ancestry.com.
As part of the arrangement, Ancestry.com set up scanners on location at the Navy Department Library (NDL) in Washington, D.C., and spent several months digitizing Navy cruise books for this occasion.

The collection, available at Ancestry.com, represents nearly 40 years of cruises following World War II, from 1950 to 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-today life on board ship. While not every Navy cruise was documented in a cruise book, the NDL 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 retired Capt. Charles T. Creekman, Jr. , NHF executive director. "A cmise book offers an insider's perspective into what these sailors experienced and the strong camaraderie they established while serving their country at sea." The payoff of this project for the Navy is that Ancestry.com donates a digital copy of each cruise book sCalmed to the NDL.

The Navy cruise books are part of Ancestry.com's U.S. MilitalY Collection, which includes 100 million names that span more than three centuries of American military service.

From Pull Together Newsletter.