US Patent Database and Genealogy

Hidden Places to Find Hints

If you find an advertisement of your ancestor's enterprise, be sure to check the small lettering for a Trademark or Patent number.  It's amazing where we can find our next clue, historical information, or answer to a burning question. Heather Wilkinson Rojo, at Nutfield Genealogy, reminds us of a great blog posts that trademarks and patents can lead the researcher to more genealogical relevant data. The US Patent and Trademark Office allows for Patent searches as well as Trademark searches on pending and registered marks (TESS database).

In her blog post Peter Hoogerzeil’s House in Beverly, Massachusetts, Rojo "used the patent number on the advertisement to search on the US Patent and Trademark Office website." The result: information on her inventor ancestor. Now that kind of find nets bragging rights!  This blog was a short practical case study of how to use the US Patent database to further your genealogy research.

But not to be outdone, along comes Google Patents. - another great tool to search Patents and Trademarks while doing family research.  And who's a better tester of this product than Heather Wilkinson Rojo? Rojo experimented and shared her experience with us in her article Perusing Google Patent.

The Nutfield posts Perusing Google Patent, dated 14 Jan 2011, is a coup de gras of patent research and genealogy efforts combined. It appears that "Deb Ruth’s blog “Adventures in Genealogy” gave Google Patents' website link http://www.google.com/patents in her article Google Patents. Both of these blog post lets us know that Google Patents is a definite resource for the family researcher to learn more of their "tinkering" ancestors.


Next...my turn!

Kathleen Brandt
a3Genealogy@gmail.com
Accurate, accessible answers