This week’s #FridayFind isn’t a draft card but a pension index card!

Written By Dmitri Schmidt

For the past two finds, we’ve talked about military records from World War II, but what about records from the Civil War?

A pension index card can shed light on what company your ancestors served in and what rank they achieved. In the case of our example above, George Carpenter served with Company G of the 3rd Indiana Cavalry before joining Company G of the 145th Indiana Infantry and reaching the rank of Corporal. Furthermore, you might be able to order the pension file from the National Archives to understand this ancestor’s experiences better.

Need help doing that? Email us at emma@backlog-archivists.com!

US Civil War Pension File Index.

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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Happy Women’s History Month! This week’s #FridayFind is a 20th-century career woman.
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This week’s #FridayFind isn’t the height of your great-grandfather but his “other obvious physical characteristics that will aid in identification.”