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

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!