Pertinent to genealogical research are photographs, and my research has been enriched by the photos that appear throughout this website. Many relatives have unselfishly shared photos in their possesion. Some photographs have found their way to me by friends and relatives who just happen to see the photos published in a book or in a newspaper article. If you position your mouse over an image on this website, you will see the name of the person who provided that image.

The images on this page resulted from a combination of the above scenarios. Norma McDonald, a descendant of the Brugman family line, found a photo postcard of the image to the left among her father's belongings. However, the postcard does not identify the person on it so she sent it to me hoping that the person on it might one day be identified.

The image on the right was published in the article Un Siglo al Servicio de Puerto Rico (El Nuevo Dia, January 31, 1999), on page 6, which was sent to me by Sara Lozano, another Brugman descendant. Unlike the image to its left, this one is identified as being a photo of Arnaldo Brockman Toro, a descendant of Leocadio Brookman Cardona. I have found that this Brugman family line have spelled their surnames in various ways: Bruckman, Brockman and Brookman. I have not yet acquired any of the birth records so I do not know which one ended being the legal spelling of their surname. Regardless of how they spell thier surname, they are descendants of Matias Brugman.



Felicie Bentiné, a fellow genealogial researcher, reviewed La Presencia de la Policia en la Historia de Puerto Rico: 1898-1995 by José E. Martínez Valentín for her own research efforts a few years ago. She e-mailed me that in it were articles and photos of Brugman and Beauchamp descendants. I recently found a copy of the book at the Lloyd Sealy Library John Jay College of Criminal Justice. I was delighted to find on page 368 the same image, as on the postcard, identified as one of three famous Bruckman Toro brothers.



But when I got home and consulted my files I found a problem. The officers are identified as Enrique, Arnaldo and Arcadio. I have several other siblings for these men but none by the name of Arcadio and Arnaldo is listed as being Enrique Arnaldo.

So where is the error? Is it in my database? Or is it in La Presencia de la Policía en la Historia de Puerto Rico: 1898-1995? Can anyone enlighten me? And if you can, the caption reads Three of the famous Bruckman Toro brothers.... Were any of the other siblings also police officers? And if so, which one(s)?

We are at least one step closer. Whatever his given name may be, he is one of the famous Bruckman Toro brothers, who served as a police officer in Puerto Rico.