Matthew Jude Barker

Hello. I'm Matt Barker.

I've been a professional genealogical and historical researcher since 1981, listed by the Maine Historical Society and the Portland Public Library since 1989..

I edit and compile The Downeast Shamrock, a monthly newsletter devoted to Irish heritage and genealogy in Maine, New England, the Northeast, and Canada.

The many historical articles I've has written over the years have appeared in Portland Magazine, Galway Roots and Discover Maine.

And I contributed a chapter entitled The Irish Community and Irish Organizations of Nineteenth-Century Portland, Maine to Michael Connolly's They Change Their Sky: The Irish in Maine (2004).

I also contributed to Kevin Stoehr and Michael Connolly's John Ford in Focus (2008).

I'm currently working on a major history of the Portland, Maine Irish, and am also near to completing The Blue and the Green: The Portland, Maine Irish During the Civil War.

I'm a graduate of South Portland High School (1992) and studied Mass Communications at Franklin Pierce College.

And of course I'm available to do genealogical and historical research. How can I help you? Send me an e-mail!