This week’s #FridayFind is the height of your great-grandfather…?

Written By Dmitri Schmidt

If you’ve never done any genealogy research yourself, your first association might be a long list of names pulled from census reports, birth certificates, and marriage licenses. You might think to yourself, a family tree is nice, but what about personal attributes?

One place you can find more details, besides particularly juicy newspaper clippings (see our find on grand theft in St. Louis) or boastful advertisements in the city directory (see our December webinar), is a draft card. Without a photograph for reference, a draft card can tell you things like height, weight, and even eye color.

Where else have you found more personal information? Reach out to 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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This week’s #FridayFind isn’t the height of your great-grandfather but his “other obvious physical characteristics that will aid in identification.”
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This week’s #FridayFind is an elusive date of death.