Which Inventor are you most closely connected to?

Question

This week we're featuring inventors in the Connection Finder to commemorate the birthday of Otto Rohwedder, the inventor of sliced bread.

Featured alongside him are other creative minds:

• Josephine Cochran, a dishwasher
• Alfred Cralle, ice cream scoop
• Herman Snellen, the Snellen chart measure for visual acuity
• Nicolas Appert, father of canning (airtight food preservation)
• Arthur Ganong, individual chocolate bar
• John Harington, flushing toilet
• Emil Berliner, phonograph record and gramophone
• Lancelot de Mole, tracked armored vehicle (tank)
• Ferdinand von Zeppelin, the Zeppelin air travel
• John Patch, Screw type propeller

Who are you most closely connected to? If you're one of the 22,967,000 of us who are connected to each other on our big tree you can check with the Connection Finder.

You can check for shared ancestors with the Relationship Finder. Are you a cousin to any of them? Your Relationship Finder Quick Links page (see your profile pull-down menu under "Relationships") has quick links for several notable groups.

Let us know below! If you want to share your connection on social media with cousins and friends, click the "get shareable image" below the results, e.g. John Hancock and Otto Rohwedder. Then just upload it along with the URL of your direct connection. (Please refrain from sharing your connection on the featured profiles, though. It clutters conversations on research and collaboration. Thanks!)

P.S. Help us choose and improve profiles for next week's feature: the French Revolution!

Comments

I am most closely connected to two inventors in my own family.  My g grandfather (Kissinger-191) invented an electric switching device, although I believe the company he worked for at the time registered the patent for it.  My own brother (Kissinger-193) received a patent for a special cleaning tool for cleaning deep fat fryers, after he was burned pretty severely at a fast-food restaurant while changing the hot fat. Interestingly, the restaurant he worked for wasn't interested in using the device and later let my brother "go" - figuring he was a trouble-maker!

Answer 1

I am most closely connected to Josephine Cochran at 16 degrees of separation.

Cousins:

• 20 degrees from John Harington (4C, 15R)
• 20 degrees from Arthur Ganong (13C, 8R)
• 23 degrees from Lance de Mole (14C, 3R)
• 16 degrees from Josephine Cochran (16C, 3R)

No Relationship Found:

• 18 degrees from John Patch
• 23 degrees from Ferdinand von Zeppelin
• 23 degrees from Otto Frederick Rohwedder
• 23 degrees from Emile Berliner
• 26 degrees from Herman Snellen
• 39 degrees from Alfred Cralle
• 40 degrees from Nicolas Appert

Answer 2

I am most closely connected to John Patch at 22 degrees.

Comments

I'm his 7th cousin 6 times removed. lol

Answer 3

16 degrees from Arthur Ganong (7th cousins, 4x removed)
17 degrees from John Patch (6th cousins, 6x removed)
20 degrees from Lance de Mole (12th cousins, 5x removed)
20 degrees from John Harington (5th cousins, 15x removed)
21 degrees from Josephine Cochran
23 degrees from Herman Snellen
24 degrees from Otto Frederick Rohwedder
25 degrees from Ferdinand von Zeppelin
26 degrees from Emile Berliner
42 degrees from Nicolas Appert
55 degrees from Alfred Cralle

Answer 4

It's a new kind of record for me today.  28 "horizontal" (siblings and spouses) steps between Alfred Cralle and me.  In all those steps, no one was born earlier than 1733.

In the normal way of looking at things, John Patch was closest, 17 degrees and a 5th cousin 6 times removed.  The propeller was a wonderful invention.  Although geared rotary devices go back well over 2000 years, apparently this way of applying rotary power to boats was not obvious.  It didn't appear until after early practical steam engines were designed.

Answer 5

• 14 degrees from Arthur Ganong (7c3xr)
• 18 degrees from John Patch (7c5xr)
• 19 degrees from John Harington (4c16xr)
• 20 degrees from Josephine Cochran
• 20 degrees from Stuart Awbrey (17c2xr)
• 22 degrees from Ferdinand Von Zeppelin
• 23 degrees from Lance de Mole (13c3xr)
• 23 degrees from Emily Berliner
• 24 degrees from  Otto Frederick  Rohwedder
• 29 degrees from Herman Snellen
• 43 degrees from Nicolas Appert
• 53 degrees from Alfred  Cralle

Answer 6

I realize week to week that closeness does not always = relatedness. This week, I've found that 4 of our inventors are also related:

1) John Patch: 15 degrees, and 5th cousins 6X removed through MRCA Rebecca (Taylor) Adams

2) Arthur Ganong: 18 degrees, and 17th cousins 6X removed through MRCA Cecily (Breightmet) deBarton

3) John Harington: 19th cousins, and 5th cousins 16X removed through MRCA Alice (Tilney) Skipwith

4) Lance de Mole, 25 degrees, and 16th cousins 3X removed through MRCA Isabella (Herbert) Clifton

Other connections by degree include:

Josephine Cochrane: 21 degrees; Otto Frederick Rohwedder: 21 degrees; Emile Berliner: 24 degrees; Ferdinand von Zeppelin: 25 degrees; Herman Snellen: 27 degrees; Nicolas Appert: 42 degrees; and Alfred Cralle: 54 degrees

Thank you Connection Finders!

Answer 7

Arthur Deinstadt Ganong - 9th cousin 1x removed

John Harington - 5th cousin 13x removed

Lancelot Eldin de Mole - 15th cousin 1x removed

Answer 8

18 deg. from Josephine Cochran, which is in the normal range for my connections, but them OH MY, 53 deg. from Alfred Cralle. Not been that far removed from any of the weekly profiles before.  

Maybe after the Connect-a-thon I'll have shortened some routes through the tree branches.  

Comments

My 59 from Cralle beats your 53!  

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You win 

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//Throws down // 

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You have my 54 degrees for Cralle beat, too!

Answer 9

Arthur Deinstadt Ganong and I are not only connected 13 degrees from each other, we're cousins! 5th cousins 3 times removed, specifically.

Answer 10

• 6 degrees from Frederick Simon Every [4th GG father](First chimney sweeping device)
• 7 degrees from Julius Jeffreys [4th GG Uncle](Respirator, Refrigerator, etc)
• 17 degrees from John Patch and 17 degrees from Ferdinand von Zeppelin
• 20 degrees from John Harington [7C13R],
• 21 degrees from Lance de Mole [16C3R],
• 22 degrees from Arthur Ganong [16C8R],
• 24 degrees from Herman Snellen,
• 26 degrees from Josephine Cochran,
• 30 degrees from Otto Frederick Rohwedder,
• 30 degrees from Emile Berliner,
• 39 degrees from Nicolas Appert, 
• 60 degrees from Alfred Cralle

Answer 11

15 degrees von Ferdinand von Zeppelin.

Answer 12

does anyone else play a little game with the  weekly featured profiles and guess who you would be most closely connected to, before looking at them. And then  guess what line they will go through.

Comments

Will, yes I have tried that a few times.  Of course it's narrowed down some because not all my lines are connected into the big tree.

Answer 13

I am 15 degrees from Arthur Gagnon.  A fellow Canadian and I'm sure he "loved" candy and chocolate as much as I do!

Answer 14

I'm also 14 degrees from John Patch, who was not only another Canadian, he hailed from Nova Scotia where my Paternal Ancestors came from.

Answer 15

Just the closest ones...

20 degrees from Lance de Mole, also a cousin , tank inventor.

18 degrees from Arthur Ganong, a cousin too! Yay, thanks cousin for the chocolate bars!!!

19 degrees from Josephine Cochran

18 degrees from John Harington, also a cousin.  How could we ever get by without the toilet flushing!!

17 degrees from John Patch

Answer 16

5th cousins 2x removed from Arthur Gonong.!

5th cousins 15 times removed from John Harrington.

• 24 degrees from Otto Frederick Rohwedder
• 41 degrees from Nicolas Appert
• 25 degrees from Emile Berliner
• 52 degrees from Alfred Cralle
• 24 degrees from Lance de Mole
• 13 degrees from Arthur Ganong
• 20 degrees from Josephine Cochran
• 19 degrees from John Harington
• 17 degrees from John Patch
• 26 degrees from Herman Snellen
• 23 degrees from Ferdinand von Zeppelin
• 19 degrees from Stuart Awbrey

Answer 17

11 degrees from John Patch, closest relationship by far I've had on these weekly lists, but not a cousin.

16 degrees from John Harington, first cousin 13X removed.

18 degrees from Arthur Ganong, 16th cousin 6X removed.

Answer 18

How exciting!  In this group of inventors, I found the closest connection I have found so far (for the "Who are you most closely connected to?" questions in G2G)!  I am only 10 degrees from John Patch, inventor of the screw propeller, who is my second cousin, 5 times removed.

More cousins:

John Harington (flushing toilet)  -- 5th cousins, 13 times removed

Arthur Ganong (chocolate bar) -- 9th cousins, twice removed

Lance de Mole (armored tank) -- 11th cousins, twice removed

Comments

I'm so tickled by this that I had to circle back and make another comment.  John Patch was second cousin to my maternal grandmother's great-grandmother.  My grandmother was our family historian and talked about our ancestors a good deal, so I feel as if I "knew" Eliza.  I grew up seeing her photos and hearing stories about her life and family.   And then to find Eliza's second cousin, John, on today's list, what fun!  I had no idea about him before, which is one reason I love the "Who are you connected to? questions in G2G.  Thank you for an enjoyable walk down memory lane, and for what I learned today! :)

Answer 19

And I opened up  this weeks edition of the WikiTree Family News and it said I was: 

• 15 degrees from Arthur Ganong

And I thought, "Who the heck is that?" It's not a surname I'm familiar with, but now I am. Canadian Chocolatier, ehy? And this new information made me curious about those involved with the most famous candy store in California I know of - See's Candy. Come to find out its founder is also a Canadian Chocolatier. Sweet!

Answer 20

18 to John Patch was closest

 55 to Alfred Cralle was most distant