One of the more exciting things for me in researching family history is when I come across new documents that are not already part of the collection passed down in our family. One of the first I came across a few months ago is a cruise book for the USS Barnes, the carrier my grandfather, John Livingstone, served on during World War II. I likely would not have found this anytime soon if it weren't for the internet - it is held at the Navy Department Library in Washington, D.C., but its pages have been scanned to make it available at Ancestry.com.
Cruise books were a common publication produced after a deployment, similar to a school yearbook, and included photos of the crew and information about the ship's time at sea. This one in particular is about 80 pages and includes candid photos that document everything from the ship's commissioning ceremony to sailors relaxing on-board, group portraits of every department, as well as information like the ship's log. I was able to see that t
he dates when the ship returned to San Diego, where my grandmother lived while my grandfather was at sea. The best part of discovering this book, though, was the photo of the engineering department, with my grandfather seated right in front (below, second from the left)!
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| Engineering Department |
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| Ship's Log |
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| Highlights of the USS Barnes |
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