Matthew Nickerson

Matt likes to refer to himself as the Shabbos goy of Jewish family history. He owns Private Historian, which writes and privately publishes family and personal history books on commission. His firm has written about Jewish steel company owners, whiskey moguls, California 49ers, wine salesmen, and war heroes. 

Matt, who earned a bachelor’s degree in American history from the University of Chicago, worked for 25 years as a reporter and editor at five metropolitan Chicago newspapers, most recently on the Chicago Tribune’s business desk. While a journalist, he got a master’s in European history. In 2014, he paired his newspaper skills and historical knowledge and became a family historian. 

A Chicago resident and neighborhood buff, Matt wrote the Arcadia Publishing books on Lake View and East Lake View. He has lived on Chicago’s South, West, and North Sides.