Marie Moellenburg Diaz, Dad’s Mom
Dad’s mom, Marie Moellenberg, was born on October 30, 1896, in St. Louis, MO. She was born to John Moellenberg and Adele Barmann. Marie had two older brothers, Frank and Henry. Marie’s mother Adele passed away in 1904 at age 40. Her father would marry Wilhelmina Lansing in 1905. John and Wilhelmina had a daughter Johanna in 1907.
John Moellenberg was born on March 30, 1861, in Germany. He and Adele arrived in the United States in 1893. Oldest son Frank was born in Germany, but all the rest of the children were U.S. citizens. John was a merchant. He died at 81 years of age on August 15, 1942, due to heart disease and gall stones.
The Diaz siblings – left to right, Adele, Ernie (Dad), Rita, Quentin, and Marie (Author’s Collection)
Adele Barmann was born April 2, 1864, in Germany. She died on November 22, 1904, of unknown causes at 40 years old. At the time, her children were 13, 9 and 8 years old.
Wilhelmina Lansing was born on August 16, 1868, in Germany. She married John Moellenberg at the age of 37 in 1905.
Dad did not know much about the Moellenbergs. They did not approve of Marie’s marriage to Joseph, so they did not see them very often even though they lived in the same neighborhood. Dad said he thought the Moellenbergs were stuck up. Dad and Aunt Marie thought the looked down on Dad and his siblings.
Marie Moellenberg married Joseph Diaz sometime between 1917 and 1920. They had five children. Marie was widowed in 1951, when Joseph died of stomach cancer. Dad was only 19 years old.
My older sisters were close to their grandmother Marie because she helped Dad take care of them when they were young. She helped raise all five of the girls. Dad said he could not have raised them without his mother’s help.
Marie passed away on February 2, 1979, at the age of eighty-two. She passed away before my mother started dating my stepdad, so I never got to meet her. She must have been an extraordinarily strong lady to help Dad with the girls in her seventies.
I was not able to trace the Moellenberg’s history beyond Dad’s grandparents either. It is a common experience with first generation Americans that it is difficult to trace further generations back. It is easier in other countries such as England to find records, but Germany did not unite until 1882, which was 11 years before they immigrated to the United States. The continental countries were also devastated by two world wars.