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Re: Seeking names of sailors who worked the Navy's reserve fleet
Jason Atkinson
Dec 31, 2020 11:53 AM
Dear Mr. Smith,
Thank you for posting your request on History Hub!
We searched the National Archives Catalog and located Muster Rolls of U.S. Navy Ships, Stations, and Other Naval Activities, 1/1/1939 - 1/1/1949 and Muster Rolls and Personnel Diaries of U.S. Navy Ships, Stations, and Other Naval Activities, 1/1/1949 - 12/31/1971 in the Records of the Bureau of Naval Personnel (Record Group 24) that may contain muster rolls relating to the reserve fleet. Please note that the muster rolls prior to 1957 do not list officers.Both series have been digitized and are partially available using the National Archives Catalog. The latter series is indexed by Indexes of Activity Numbers for Muster Rolls and Personnel Diaries, 1949 - 6/30/1975 in Record Group 24 that is available completely digitally using the Catalog. If you have any questions about locating muster rolls for specific units or interpreting the records, please contact the National Archives at College Park - Textual Reference (RDT2) at Archives2reference@nara.gov.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and pursuant to guidance received from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), NARA has adjusted its normal operations to balance the need of completing its mission-critical work while also adhering to the recommended social distancing for the safety of NARA staff. As a result of this re-prioritization of activities, you may experience a delay in receiving an initial acknowledgement as well as a substantive response to your reference request from RDT2. We apologize for this inconvenience and appreciate your understanding and patience.
The muster rolls are completely available through Ancestry on U.S., World War II Navy Muster Rolls, 1938-1949 and U.S., Navy Muster Rolls, 1949-1971. There may be a fee for accessing the records through Ancestry. Some libraries provide free access to their patrons.
If you are trying to locate veterans to interview, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) does not provide services to locate living individuals. The records in the custody of NARA were typically transferred from other Federal agencies at least 20-30 years after they were created and used. Therefore, NARA records are not usually helpful in providing current information about individuals. Please review NARA’s Locating Veterans and Service Members web pages for some ideas.
We hope this is helpful. Best of luck with your research!
[Information provided by Nate Patch, Subject Matter Expert]