Yesterday I published an article about searching for your ancestors in yearbooks - 14 Resources to Search Yearbooks for Your Ancestors.
As i was researching for that article I found many other types of "yearbooks" unrelated to schools, such as associations, clubs and others.
But one special class of "yearbook" is definitely worth researching if you have an ancestor or relative that was in the U.S. Navy or possibly Marines. And that is Cruise Books, which are basically a yearbook type of publication, generally created after a long deployment. The Library of the Navy Department has the largest collection of 8,000 books or so. I would definitely take a look at their online list of Cruise Books.
Please note that there are also other military branches who have published yearbooks, not just the Navy.
So without further adieu, here are 9 places, some free and some not where you can search for your ancestors in these specialized yearbooks - "Cruise Books". Please note that some are indexed and some not, so for those that are not, you will need to know the name of the ship and year of deployment.
There are also a number of collectors who make their books available for sale. There are too many to mention here, but if you wanted to go beyond research and actually own one of these books, you can easily find the dealers.
Good luck and happy hunting!
As i was researching for that article I found many other types of "yearbooks" unrelated to schools, such as associations, clubs and others.
But one special class of "yearbook" is definitely worth researching if you have an ancestor or relative that was in the U.S. Navy or possibly Marines. And that is Cruise Books, which are basically a yearbook type of publication, generally created after a long deployment. The Library of the Navy Department has the largest collection of 8,000 books or so. I would definitely take a look at their online list of Cruise Books.
Please note that there are also other military branches who have published yearbooks, not just the Navy.
So without further adieu, here are 9 places, some free and some not where you can search for your ancestors in these specialized yearbooks - "Cruise Books". Please note that some are indexed and some not, so for those that are not, you will need to know the name of the ship and year of deployment.
- Fold3 - subscription
- Ancestry.com - subscription - over 3,000 books
- Great Naval Images - cruise books available on CD
- US Navy Cruise Books - about 800 - Free
- E-Yearbook - subscription
- eBay and Amazon - for sale
- Mocavo - a small collection
- My Heritage - subscription
There are also a number of collectors who make their books available for sale. There are too many to mention here, but if you wanted to go beyond research and actually own one of these books, you can easily find the dealers.
Good luck and happy hunting!
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