How To Find Inventors In Your Family « Genealogy « iPentimento

How To Find Inventors In Your Family

Posted on June 13th, 2010 by Carol

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Yesterday, I found out that one of my family members has a new invention. You may hear about it later on this blog, but in the mean time, just for fun, I did a search on the U.S. Patent Office website to see if there are any other inventors in our family. I plugged in a few surnames for my family just to see how the site works. Then, I focused on one surname, Breedlove, knowing from family records that at one time there had been a Breedlove washing machine. The search on the patent site is very broad though, so I just did a Google search for the washing machine and got results that showed up on Patent Storm.

I think I like the Patent Storm site a little better because you can search by surname, which to a genealogist is like waving a red flag. The results after entering the search name Breedlove on Patent Storm brought up 33 hits. Not all of the results are inventors though, it looks like some of them are users of the site. But, it’s interesting to see that Patent Search also includes their geograpical location. I signed up for this site (Free) and I am not entirely happy that my name and location can show up in someone’s search results, but someone could do the same thing just looking in the White Pages online.

There are probably other searchable sites online for patent searches, but today I am just focusing on these two. Here is what the Patent Storm says about its site:

Welcome to PatentStorm

PatentStorm has a new look and new functionality.

PatentStorm offers full-text U.S. patents from the U.S. Patent Office, including advanced patent search capabilities and full image retrieval in handy PDF format. Whether you are an inventor, a patent attorney, a patent agent or just curious about how things work, this site is for you.

Our full-text patent database goes back to 1976, when the U.S. Patent Office began converting its patents to full text. Everything we offer is free.

PatentStorm is a sister company of Storming Media, a Washington, D.C.-based company that makes Pentagon information more accessible, and LegiStorm, which provides transparency to the operations of the U.S. Congress. If you have any ideas about this site or any other comments, please do not hesitate to write us.

While Patent Storm searches back to 1976, the U. S. Patent Office site searches include the capability to search Issued Patents (PatFT) (full-text since 1976, full-page images since 1790) and Published Applications (AppFT) (published since 15 March 2001).

As it turns out, I don’t think any of my Breedlove ancestors invented a washing machine, but I do know from family documents that there was a washing machine with the surname on it.

Drop back by and let me know if you find any inventors in your family! (No, Al Gore did not invent the Internet!)

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10 Responses to “How To Find Inventors In Your Family”

Drunken Dragon (1 comments.), on August 3rd, 2008 at 6:22 PM Said:

Thanks for share. that’s nice info.

Anyway, I like your blog, if you don’t mind, may we exchange link? thank you so much

Drunken Dragons last blog post..WordPress 2.6 Got Hacked
willy (1 comments.), on August 4th, 2008 at 8:47 AM Said:

great tips. thank you for your work.
Glenn Palmer (1 comments.), on August 4th, 2008 at 10:53 AM Said:

Good tip about the patent office site. I’ll pass this along to the family genealogist.
lala (6 comments.), on August 4th, 2008 at 9:13 PM Said:

I read this earlier today as I was swooping through dropping cards. I’m going to check this out…looks very cool. But…I expect to find nothing, I don’t quite think my family was the “inventing” types. However, you never know and it would be quite a nice surprise for my mom if I did find something or someone.

lalas last blog post..“Has Anyone Ever Told You…
venkat (1 comments.), on August 5th, 2008 at 5:19 AM Said:

Does sharing a family name mean the person is an ancestor? With what probability is that true. In many cases I have found that along the way in some generation people adopted a family name. So the conclusion that you have drawn may not hold in many cases?

venkats last blog post..Digital Visualization of Our Heritage
Marc Silvis (1 comments.), on August 5th, 2008 at 5:48 AM Said:

Thanks for the info. I will use it for searching for patents. I did not know that this web site existed.

Marc Silviss last blog post..How To Research That MLM Opportunity
webduck (69 comments.), on August 6th, 2008 at 8:28 AM Said:

Twitter: webduck
I wasn’t implying that it was one of my Breedlove kin that had this washing machine with the name on it. If you read the last paragraph before the picture, you can see what I meant. Actually, it is one of my pet peeves that I run into now and then with non-practicing genealogists, and that is that just because you have the same surname, it doesn’t mean you are directly related. I know that, but some people do not, and if you are new to doing genealogy you might want to keep that in mind.
Miami Mike (1 comments.), on August 8th, 2008 at 6:36 AM Said:

I found no patent with my family name. What a pity!
webduck (69 comments.), on August 10th, 2008 at 9:46 AM Said:

Twitter: webduck
Sorry to hear it Mike, but if you get time, take a look at Nickoli Tesla’s patents. It was he that invented the radio, not Marconi. They approved that change in 1943.
Renee (1 comments.), on August 11th, 2008 at 8:30 AM Said:

It troubles me that a simple search online can reveal so much private information about a person.

Renees last blog post..Amanda Beard: PETA and Olympic Pussy Pimping