This week’s #FridayFind is… an inmate who wasn’t an inmate.

Written By Dmitri Schmidt

Here at Backlog we love talking about the importance of censuses in genealogy research and how they’re not always as straightforward as they might seem. Beyond just decoding 19th and 20th century handwriting, you also have to decode what the enumerator meant when they wrote in column 7 under profession… *checks notes* inmate?

Does this mean descendants of 7 year old Osca Bischoff are actually related to the most wanted criminal in the United States? Probably not.

According to the 1870 Census Instructions to Assistant Marshals, inmates refer to people who live in “hotels, poor-houses, garrisons, asylums, jails, and similar establishments, where [they] live habitually under a single roof.” In other words, “inmate” was a broader term that was used for more than just signifying prisoners. As for little Osca, he was an “inmate” of an orphanage.

For more tips on decoding historical censuses, check out the rest of our #FridayFinds. Have you encountered a language shift while researching the census? Tell us all about it and send an email to emma@backlog-archivists.com!

Dmitri Schmidt

Dmitri plays a pivotal role in coordinating Backlog’s outreach efforts. They curate our weekly #FridayFinds and #ArchivalTips social media posts, shedding light on items discovered in our genealogy work and providing tips and tricks to approaching problems in the archives.

Dmitri holds a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology and German Studies from Saint Louis University. During their university years, they dedicated over 1000 hours to interning and volunteering at local St. Louis institutions, including the St. Louis Science Center and the St. Louis University Museum of Art. As the Collections Intern at the Science Center, Dmitri assisted in developing and installing the "Into the Vault" exhibit.

Before joining Backlog, Dmitri served as a Fulbright Grantee, teaching English as a second language in former East Germany. From guiding 11th graders in analyzing pop albums as poetry to discussing the significance of the civil rights movement with 8th graders, they covered a broad spectrum of subjects. While reveling in connecting with students and injecting fun into grammar lessons, Dmitri's deep passion for all things archival eventually drew them back home.

Today, Dmitri works as a Herbarium Assistant at the Missouri Botanical Garden, helping digitize the millions of preserved plant specimens. After being scanned and transcribed, these images aid scholars around the globe in furthering botanical research. Dmitri also serves as the archivist for the Kirkwood Historical Society. They are currently overseeing the “Journeys into Kirkwood’s History” project, which aims to digitize documents related to Kirkwood’s early Black settlements.

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