Turning Our Hearts: Theodore Gilbert MOMINEE (1906-1995) Ohio updated

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Theodore Gilbert MOMINEE (1906-1995) Ohio updated

Well, we thought that Ted was our maternal grandfather, but through DNA testing we have discovered that he is not our biological grandfather. He was married to our grandmother when she became pregnant with my mother, and since I've already made blogposts about Ted and some of his ancestors, the posts will stay with just a slight change to the body of the post... but it does make for an awkward post. Since we only met Ted once when we were very little, learning he is not our grandfather is not the emotional trauma that it might have been otherwise. (updated 9 March 2025)

Theodore Gilbert MOMINEE is the 6th of 7 children born to Frederick and Pearl (VINCENT) MOMINEE
     b. 26 October 1906 Oregon, Lucas, Ohio
     m. 1st Helen Elvira RIDDLEBAUGH 18 April 1931 Toledo, Lucas, Ohio
     m. 2nd Laura Velva MASON 14 September 1947 Rossford, Wood, Ohio
     d. 21 December 1995 Oregon, Lucas, Ohio

Ted's first marriage, to Helen Elvira RIDDLEBAUGH, ended in divorce. Helen had given birth to my mother in August of 1935.

Ted later married Laura Velva MASON, but sadly Laura was not able to have any children. She told me she got pregnant once or twice, but miscarried early on. Years later she found out she had an "infantile uterus" and that is why they weren't able to have children.

Ted was Catholic and had my mother baptized into the Catholic church when she was an infant (but she wound up being raised a Methodist). The family story goes that when Ted and Helen divorced, the courts would not allow Ted to raise a daughter by himself, considering it an inappropriate thing for a single man to raise a girl. Mom didn't know that at the time and grew up thinking her parents didn't want her. Now I am wondering if Ted knew that Helen's child wasn't his.

Ted married his second wife, Laura, on the 14th of September 1947. Laura had also been previously married and divorced. Their marriage record makes it look like Ted's divorced was granted on the 5th of September 1947 and Laura's divorced was finalized on the 12th of April 1947. I do not know for sure if that means that Ted and Helen's divorce wasn't finalized until the 5th of September or if he had another wife in between Helen and Laura. I have not found any other marriage records for Ted.

His enlistment record in January of 1943 says that he was married, but on his draft card he gave his sister, Virginia PERFILI, as his permanent contact and not a wife. Is the "married" on his enlistment record incorrect and he was single or is there a wife we are unaware of or was it Helen? Helen remarried in 1940 and divorced in 1944, so it looks like she might have married Albert Goodell before being divorced from Ted. Don't know.

There was no contact between my mom and Helen or Ted until she was in college, and there was only extremely limited contact after that. I do barely remember visiting Ted in his barbershop/home on one of our summer visits to Ohio when I was young. That is the only time I saw him. The thing is, I remember the barbershop and apartment, but barely remember seeing a man there. I remember meeting Helen only once.

Years later, after I was married, I started corresponding with Laura. She is the one who gave me my first pictures of Ted. I was later able to get a few more from a cousin I had discovered by doing genealogy.

Ted was in the Army in World War II. Information gleaned from some military records say that he enlisted 7 January 1943 and was discharged 21 September 1945 (World War II ended on 2 September 1945). It says he had 3 years of high school, was 5' 11" tall, and weighed 168 lbs. He had brown eyes, black hair, and was of a dark complexion. The other information on this record says his civilian occupation was a "semiskilled inspectors, n.e.c" and his Army Branch was "Branch Immaterial--Warrant Officer," meaning he did not have an assignment yet. Laura said that he served in the Army Air Corps and spent some time in Florida, but most of his time was in the south Pacific.

I know Ted worked as an inspector for the Toledo Scale Company for 35 years. Laura worked at a scale company as a bookkeeper when they married in 1947 and in the 1950 census, it says she was an inspector, as well. He also owned a barber shop, appropriately named Ted's Barber Shop. Laura says that even when he was 79 he was still working part-time as a barber.

As for conjecture, Ted's middle name is Gilbert. His great-grandfather was named Hubert Gilbert MOMINEE, so that is probably where his middle name comes from. However, Ted had a cousin named Gilbert who died at the age of 6 days old (probably named after their great-grandfather). That happened 22 years before Ted was born, but my mom and I are thinking that is also where Ted's middle name came from.

I think it's amusing that in their household while Ted was growing up, there was the father Fred, with his sons Ed, Fred, and Ted.

Another observation: Ted had 5 older siblings--Lucy, Ed, Jennie, Fred, and Dick. These five were born in a 7 year period. Then another 9 years pass before Ted is born, with his brother Sylvester (Ves) being born 2 1/2 years later. Maybe Pearl had children in between Dick and Ted that that passed away that we don't have a record for. It's no wonder that the photos I have of Ted as a child are just of Ted and Ves. I'm guessing they might have been close as children, but Laura told me that as adults Ves didn't have much contact with his family.