About Us
The Archival Researchers Association (ARA) is a non-profit 501(3)(c) that represents professional archival researchers, who regularly visit and use the resources physically available at federally funded cultural history organizations such as the National Archives, the Library of Congress, and the Smithsonian Institution. ARA members include small businesses, non-profits, private contractors and the clientele of these varied enterprises. Our primary focus is on expanding and improving traditional, in-person access to high value government records maintained at archival research facilities nationwide through education and advocacy.
Our Mission
The ARA advocates for individuals, private organizations and small businesses who require access to state and federal historical records.
Executive Board
Steve Greene served as an archivist for the Nixon Presidential Library at the National Archives for more than 20 years. He directed preservation, archival processing and reference operations on millions of feet of motion picture film, thousands of hours of recorded sound and video, and hundreds of of thousands of still photographs. In 2015 he Spearheaded a new digitization initiative to capture 240,000 images from 35mm still photographic negatives. After 34 years at the National Archives, much of that time spent working with journalists and documentary film professionals, Steve started his own business as a professional archival media researcher in October 2018. His website and blog is available at historicty.co.
Myra Miller is the co-founder of Footsteps Researchers, a global team of WWII researchers who retrace tours of duty for the families of those who served. Using archival documents, the research team maps footsteps and leads battlefield tours with expert guides. She is also the founder of Legacy: Lost & Found is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization which is dedicated to battlefield relic return and research in addition to assisting European grave adopters learn about their KIA soldier. Our team of Legacy researchers identifies who owned the item and their story, reunites their sacred relics with the veteran or family, educates the family and public about the veteran’s story and sacrifice. Her group allows both descendants and the general public to preserve the deeply personal legacies of American World War II heroes for generations to come.
Michael Bracey is a US Army veteran of the Vietnam War and a former prosecutor from New York. He is a graduate of American University and Antioch School of Law, both of Washington DC. Michael has worked on veterans issues with the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs, and the Board of Veterans Appeals. He is currently the President and CEO of Michael Bracey Archival Research and specializes in military records, and assisting veterans with their disability claims.
Born in upstate New York while a blizzard raged, Kathryn joined her 3 brothers and 3 sisters as the newest member of the family. When she was just a toddler, Kathryn moved with her family to Springfield Missouri where her father took a “temporary” job in Marshfield, Missouri. The youngest of 7 siblings, mother to Audrey and Ellise, Aung and Greatest Aunt, her focus has always been family and the adventure of life. After graduating from Missouri State University and getting married, Kathryn worked in youth based not-for-profits and education before starting her next career as an Event Management and Caterer. Kathryn puts her organizational skills to good use by keeping the Footsteps Researchers team on task, working behind the scenes to support the entire research team. When she is not walking through history doing research, Kathryn spends her time with family, continues her passion for food, and cares for her elderly mother and older brother with MS on their family land in Strafford Missouri.
Geoff Gentilini is the founder and lead research specialist at Golden Arrow Research, LLC. For the past decade he has provided research services with an emphasis on rebuilding the service history of individual veterans whose records were destroyed in the 1973 archives fire. In 2021, Geoff led the ARA effort to advocate to Congress for an increase in funding for the National Archives. From 2020 to 2023, the ARA convinced many Senate and House members to support additional funding for the National Archives, primarily by showcasing the in-person research that is done at the archival research room in St Louis. As a former educator, Geoff is passionate about both teaching research skills and preserving the service history and sacrifice of US military veterans.
Board members at large
Matt Lemasters, BA
Matt LeMasters has had a lifelong passion for military history. Wanting to learn more about his family’s story during World War II, he first visited the National Archives at St. Louis in 2015. On that first of many visits, he immediately fell in love with digging through original records and uncovering long lost history that had been buried for so many years. While continuing to conduct research at the archives as he pursued his BA in History, he decided to become a professional researcher-for-hire, assisting others in finding the true stories behind individual veterans and their sacrifices
Bill Beigel, MA
Bill Beigel is an American military records researcher, speaker, and author specializing in service histories of American veterans and casualties of World War II. Since 1999, Mr. Beigel has researched thousands of WWII veterans and casualties for individuals, families, private and public organizations worldwide. He is the author of “Buried on the Battlefield – Not My Boy: The Return of the Dead from World War Two,” which has been optioned for a documentary film. He is building the world’s first complete online database of the 407,000 American military casualties from World War II, which presently includes more than 100,000 names.
Dirk Burgdorf, MBA
Dirk is an impassioned researcher with over 25 years of archival research experience. He previously came from the corporate world where he held mid- and senior level management positions with numerous multinational corporations, living half of that time in several countries outside the U.S. Dirk looks forward to assisting the ARA in establishing and maintaining a productive partnership with NARA based on identification of and progress on mutually beneficial goals, while supporting researcher interests and access to NARA’s archival materials.
Kevin Morrow
Kevin Morrow is the founder of the research company Ab Initio Archives Research, LLC and an independent history researcher who for 17 years has focused on serving clients by providing them with military, intelligence, diplomatic, and a broad range of other civilian records. He worked as an archivist at the Still Picture Branch of the National Archives for 10 years. He is also a photographer, translator, copy editor, and freelance writer, as well as the author of the 2018 book Germany’s Covert War in the Middle East: Espionage, Propaganda, and Diplomacy in World War I. Through his service to the ARA board, Kevin hopes to help improve relations and particularly communication between NARA management and the researching community and to help promote goals that will benefit both.
Kathleen Murphy Lang
Kathleen Murphy Lang spent two decades as a factory business owner and artist before shifting careers to become an independent genealogical researcher. She specializes in reconstructing US military service records and on site archival research. Kathleen is particularly interested in the application of wider historical context to individual records and in the preservation and use of non-digital source material. Her commitment to the ARA is rooted in the magical experience of personally handling the original centuries old documents of her own ancestors, an experience which the ARA is working to preserve and protect for future generations.
Advisory Board
Jaclyn Ostrowski, BA
Jaclyn Ostrowski is a retired Archives Specialist and founder/research expert at STL Archives Access. She was part of the NARA team that established and opened the first public research room at the National Personnel Records Center-St Louis in 2005 and also spent several years as a Subject Matter Expert at Dept of Veterans Affairs Liaison Office at NPRC. Ms Ostrowski helped prepare and implement “best practise” techniques used by both NARA and VA staff to identify & locate military service record data lost in the 1973 fire. Her special expertise lies in identifying and locating “missing” 20th century military personnel files and documentary evidence needed by wartime veterans to qualify for benefits. Ms. Ostrowski feels strongly that gaining access to public records improperly “withheld” by government offices (often due to budget constraints) is important to our democracy.
Jessica Taylor
Jessica Taylor has served as President of Legacy Tree Genealogists since 2004 and has helped thousands of clients across the globe discover more about their heritage through professional genealogy research. With a bachelor’s degree in Family History – Genealogy, Spanish and Portuguese language proficiency, years of residence in China and Brazil, and a love of history and mystery, Jessica brings an upbeat global view to the genealogy business industry. She currently serves on the board of the Association of Professional Genealogists, as Vice President of the Genealogy Business Alliance, as Treasurer of the Association of Genealogy Educators and Schools, and as a SCORE small business mentor.