If you have any indication that you may have ancestry in Eastport, talk first to Helen Archer at the Eastport City Rooms, 78 High Street, 853-2300. I had been searching for information about my grandfather's first wife, Emma. Her grave was in South Portland; her death certificate said that she was born in South Portland, but I couldn't find a birth record. Then I found their marriage on the Internet at the Maine Archives marriage records. When I ordered the marriage certificate, it listed her parents as being born in Eastport. What a surprise! We didn't think that we had any Eastport connections. Helen immediately disagreed. Emma's father was born in Eastport and served from here for 4 years in the Civil War, while her mother was born on Campobello. Eight of their children were born in Eastport after their Eastport marriage. They left Eastport after the big fire in 1886 to settle in South Portland, however they continued to record the births of their children in Eastport. Helen's knowledge was invaluable in my search efforts.

Birth, marriage, death, and cemetery records are available from the City Rooms. At the cemetery, there is often someone to help you locate the headstones. There is a room at the Barracks Museum devoted to genealogy, while the Peavey Memorial Library has a wealth of old records. You can search through a variety of appropriate books as well as microfilms of the Eastport Sentinel.

Family History Center: 100 Court Street, Machias - Wednesdays: 5 - 9 PM, Saturdays, 1 - 5 PM.

Francis Raye in Perry is an expert in the genealogy of Washington County and much of the rest of Maine. There is a listing of genealogy related sites on the "Area Links" page of Amity Computer.

Eastport, Maine: Easternmost City in the U.S.A.