LUND : ORTLOFF : RED THUNDER : RICHARDSON : Genealogy Query


The Genealogy Query Database	Genealogy Query Details

Full Details for Query #201697

Commands:

	Reply to this Query

	Post a new Query

	View all queries posted by this Submitter

	Edit this query

	Is this query offensive?

Date Posted:

16-Mar-2009

Surname(s):

LUND : ORTLOFF : RED THUNDER : RICHARDSON

Query Text:

A baby boy was born on April 10, 1979 in Williston, North Dakota to Linda K. Richardson and Michael P. Ortloff at Mercy Hospital. I named him Patrick Ryan Richardson. He weighed 9 lbs. 10 oz. I was able to spend one day with him. I picked him up at the temporary foster parents' home and brought him to my best friends home for the day. I had him baptized on that day. Fr. Raymond Aydt oficiated at St. Joseph's Catholic church in Williston. I worked with Catholic Family Services in North Dakota and Williams County Social Services to facilitate the adoption. Linda Schneider was the Williams County social worker and I believe Shirley Hoffarth was the Catholic Family Services Social worker. I requested that my baby boy be placed with a Catholic Family in the Eastern part of North Dakota. I believe my wishes were honored though I have no way of knowing for sure because there was no open adoption at the time that I knew of. Patrick was a beautiful healthy newborn with brown hair and dark eyes which I believe would have been brown eventually. I am half Lakota Sioux and am enrolled in the Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux tribe. I was 17 and a senior in high school at the time Patrick was born. His father Michael was no longer in my life. He had dropped out of school and I broke off the relationship just prior to discovering my pregnancy. Mike and I were both young and at the time I believed my decision to place Patrick would provide the best possible life for him. I was young and scared, afraid of raising a child on my own without a father. I now know that it is possible to raise healthy independent children alone as a single parent because that is exactly what I did some years later when my husband walked out on me and left me on my own with seven children and an eighth on the way. Patrick has five half sisters and three half brothers ranging in age from 15 to 26. I would like him to know that I have never forgotten him and my decision to place him for adoption was done so out of love and a firm belief that a child would be better off in a home with both a loving mother and father. I trusted people from these agencies to find such a home for him. I have been thinking about Patrick much lately and would like to know how his life turned out. I pray for him daily. I have always done that even before he made his entrance into this world. Patrick has been in my thoughts and prayers every day since I first discovered that I had a life growing inside of me. Lately I find myself wondering and pondering this person who emerged from me and was set out worlds away from me it seems to be a part of another family. I, Linda was born on July 28, 1961 in Rawlings, Wyoming. My family moved to Williston in 1964 and I was raised and attended school in Williston. I graduated in 1979 fom Williston Senior High School. I attended Mary College in Bismarck for one year then went on to attend the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks for five years. I now once again live and work in Williston where my two brothers and parents have resided. I returned after being gone for 26 years. I lived in Grand Forks for 11 years and in Fargo for 14 years.