This week’s #FridayFind is… a surname distribution map!

Written By Dmitri Schmidt

If you’re not familiar, surname distribution maps help visualize where surnames occurred in a specific time and place. This can be useful if you know your family emigrated from a specific country, but can’t quite pin down a specific region. (And once you do pin down a specific region, you can use an Ortssippenbuch!) However, if you’re researching a more common last name such as Schmidt or Smith, this approach probably won’t be very useful for you.

Also, different resources pull from different sources, meaning not every distribution map will be relevant to your research. For example, the above map by the German Society for Computer Genealogy pulls from a list of Prussian soldiers fallen in WWI. If you’re not interested in German surnames from the early 1900s, this map won’t be very useful for you.

Want to give it a shot? Let us know how it went 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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