It’s Not So Hard to Get a Patent

Solomon and Hannah Menkin moved to America in 1888. Tracking them after that gets a little tricky.

In the first place, the 1890 U.S. Census, had it survived, would have been central to finding more information. Tragically, the 1890 Census was almost completely destroyed in a terrible archive fire in 1921. The loss of this priceless census creates massive brick walls that sometimes take a lot of effort to break through. The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) website tells the intriguing story of this fire and the loss of this part of our history.

The next census we can get our hands on for Solomon Menkin is the 1900 U.S. Census – showing that his occupation is “toolmaker.” According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there were 28,122 people who identified themselves as toolmakers in the 1900 U.S. Federal Census. The 1910 U.S. Federal Census also shows “toolmaker” for his occupation, and it is not until the 1920 U.S. Census Federal Census, that his occupation is listed as “Mechanic – Button Factory,” with the additional indication that he is an employer.

I used to play with buttons as a kid. This was before the rise of the great game and toy manufacturing industry and the marketing that accompanied it. In the 1950s, we played with golf balls and jacks, acorns, items from Dad’s tackle box that did not have hooks, and BUTTONS, which I kept in a cigar box!

So to learn more about the occupation, and the first immigrant ancestor in my current research study, I simply Googled, “Solomon Menkin button.” Lo’ and behold, the first item in the search results was in “Google Patents,” Patent No. US586821 – Button-making machine. Clicking on that result yielded his date and place of filing, the text of the patent and accompanying diagrams, and, to my surprise, a link to a 2001 patent filing for a solid-state image-sensing device which cited Menkin’s original patent. There was also a link to original images located in the online database of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO.gov). You can also search for patents with USPTO.gov’s patent search feature, using inventor name, patent number, and other search terms. I tried this, and found a second patent for Solomon Menkin. Thanks go to Google and USPTO.gov for allowing another aspect of family history research to unfold.

So you see, it is not so hard to get a patent – a copy of one, that is. In the process we learn so much about our ancestors and their life’s work. This was only the beginning in our search to learn more about the life and legacy of Solomon Menkin. The icing on the cake was a slightly different Google search with the term, “S. Menkin button” which offered an article AND a photograph of the inventor himself in a 1916 issue of the trade journal, Notions and Fancy Goods, in which he was lauded as “the father of the covered button industry.” In family history research sometimes, it doesn’t get better than that.