Dan Berwin Brockman

I have been working on genealogy of my family for about 65 years. My German side is well documented thanks to my father's good record keeping and contact with my cousin in Germany over the past 150 years. My mother's side is less clearly recorded due to secrecy and poor literacy by her grandparents and other relatives who originated in Poland and the present day Czech Republic. The Bohemian Jewish side of her family is only partially recovered. Osek-Wossek is the town most associated with the Bohemian family. In Poland the town is Babimost=Bomst.

Current Foci:

Last few years have been focussed on the Jews of Rhodes Project here on Geni. Includes building new profiles and adding existing profiles to the several Rhodes projects. Primary is the Project for the Jews of Rhodes, followed by the Holocaust in Greece, the Holocaust Survivors, and related Jews of Zimbabwe and Jews of Izmir projects.

Sources for the Holocaust impact on Rhodes include the 1939 Italian Census, yad Vashem, USHMM and Arolsen. One additional census was completed shortly before World War II. It is available online but in Italian. Another census was completed after the war, also in Italian.

I also work on various aspects of US Naval history, battles and ships history, with large loss of life of sailors at sea. Battle of Midway and the Battle of the Coral Sea are two examples. More recent (2023) is the story of the USS Neosho, sunk in the Coral Sea Battle.

As far as my personal history goes I can offer this summary of my long life. Born in the City of St. Louis in 1937. I was ttaken home to Kirkwood, Missouri and lived there with my parents thru HighSchool.

In 1955 I went to Park College near Kansas City, Missouri/Kansas. After two years I transferred to University of Michigan in the Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering program graduating in 1960. I got married to Ellen Signaigo and moved to New York City on West 69th Street for 3 months. During that time I was employed by M. Rosenblatt designing the a scientific ship for oceanographic work, named Atlantis II. That ship was later seen in Woods Hole, Massachusetts between deployments. One of my Park College friends, Thomas Aldrich, was stationed on the ship.

I was Called to Navy Officers School so we moved to Newport, Rhode Island. I graduated from OCS 26th in my class of 600 men. After several notices (canceled) of duty stations I received active orders to go to Norfolk, Virginia Degaussing and Deperming Station. We moved to Norfolk. I had three years at this facility, including the Cuban Missile Crisis and the death of President Kennedy I completed my Navy service. One son was born in Norfolk.

I went to work in the Space Program in Cape Canaveral and lived in Indian Harbor Beach, Florida for three years. I was working on Apollo Program Tracking Ships engineering upgrades and shipyard stints. Several trips on Tracking ships and Apollo test runs was fun. I was employed by PanAm Airlines Guided Missile Range Division during this assignment.

I was offered a position as a Design Manager for General Dynamics in Quincy, Massachusetts in 1966. My work there was supervision of a team of 20 engineers and draftsmen on three US Navy ship design projects. That lasted 7 years. The last Special Project was investigating Navy change orders that cost General Dynamics much time and money. The final position was Contract Administrator for the manufacture of the LNG tanks for the six LNG large scale Tankers built by GD. They were being built by the same firm that built the St. Louis Arch.

After several General Dynamics Quincy positions I became Chief Engineer at Samson Ocean Systems in Boston working on moorings, fenders. large diameter ropes and winches, including trips to Scotland, England, Houston, and Washington, DC. My name is on a patent for a innovative ship's fender.

While looking for another position I went to Management Recruiters office in Copley Square in Boston and was hired by them to handle a technical desk as a recruiter of engineers. That was a successful transition to a more profitable enterprise.

My wife became a Manager at an insurance firm home office near Chicago so we moved our family to Barrington Hills, Illinois. This allowed me to continue my recruiting career on my own from my home office and I became a specialist recruiter for Safety Engineers and Industrial Hygienists.

While all that was going on I did research on a distant relative named Mungo Mackay and managed to write a book about his life. He was one of the richest men in Boston as a result of his Privateering business. Copies are in various history libraries. Additional research was prepared that led to many biographies on Wikipedia.

I maintain my technology skills as a Partner in a Project Development.Company. My extended family joined with me to acquire shares and now we own about 1/3 of a company involved in crude oil processing in emerging countries.

That led to genealogy and here we are. It is fun to see a person's life brought to life in print. That's my main goal.