This week’s #FridayFind is… the 1870 census!

Written By Dmitri Schmidt

For anyone who’s good with remembering dates, you might have caught that this would have been the first census after the Civil War. And to say this changed how censuses were conducted would be a massive understatement.

Until 1870, enslaved people were listed statistically under their enslavers. That is to say only as numbers to be counted towards the amount of representatives a state had in Congress. (Remember the Three-fifths Compromise?) Check out the 1840 census (the second image above) for an example.

In comparison, the 1870 census (see the first image) lists all African Americans alongside the rest of the population with full biographical information. Thus, this census is often the first official record of a surname for former enslaved people.

Hit a brick wall in your genealogy research? Email us at 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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