About Save OUR National Archives (SONA)

SONA (Save OUR National Archives) is a broad consortium of non-profit organizations and individuals dedicated to the preservation and enhancement of public access and services provided by the regional offices and collections of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).

Based in San Francisco with national alliances, SONA originally formed to protest the proposed closure of the thirteen regional national archives in 1998. Its later advocacy efforts from 1998-2009 led to preservation of the Alien Case Files (A-Files) as historical records to be kept permanently at the National Archives. Today, the National Archives maintains A-Files for nearly 2,000,000 19th and 20th century American immigrants at its facilities near San Francisco, CA and Kansas City, MO. The A-Files are an invaluable collection for the descendants of these immigrants, historians, immigration researchers, and genealogists.

SONA Members and Supporters

  • Chinese for Affirmative Action

  • Reem Awad-Rashmawi, JD, Genealogist and President of the Arab and Arab American Genealogical Society

  • Christopher Chow, former Chair of the Angel Island Immigration Station Historical Advisory Committee, and KPIX CBS 5 reporter (retired)

  • Grant Din, Genealogist

  • Anna Eng, Lecturer, San Francisco State University

  • Claire Kluskens, JD, Fellow of the National Genealogical Society, Genealogist

  • Marisa Louie Lee, Historical Researcher and Roots program alum

  • Jennie Lew, Filmmaker

  • Jeanie Low, Genealogist

  • Linda Harms Okazaki, Genealogist

  • Rosalyn Tonai, Executive Director, National Japanese American Historical Society, Inc.

  • Eddie Wong, former Executive Director of the Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation, and editor of East Wind

  • Louise Bluestone

  • Deborah Grace Kent

  • Debra Levin 

  • Jane Perry

  • Rosalia Mendoza

  • Terri Taylor

  • Kathie Trewin

  • Eden Webbe