by Owen Wiese, guest writer
From the time that I got in touch with Mick Ramey several things have happened in the quest for information associated with Karl Risty. About the time that I established the contact with Mick Ramey, he called me, and he had been contacted by the daughters of two Risty girls (sisters of Austin Risty), Mary Louise and Betsy who went to school in Garretson. These daughters live in Oregon and the state of Washington. They are also formulating a family history of the Risty family, and had contacted Mick Ramey asking for Risty information.
Mick sent me a picture of himself with his grandmother Rosemary (Risty) and grandfather Al Ramey taken at the wedding of he and his wife, Diane. Karl Risty died in 1968, Al in 1990, and Rosemary in 2009. Al and Rosemary had five children, Mick being the middle child. In another lucky break when William (Bill) Ramey died, Mick’s wife Diane submitted the obituary to the Argus Leader at a cost of $450. I would not have seen it if had not been published in the Argus Leader, the first break in the search for the Karl Risty family.
About this time Lois told me about a family history of the Risty family that my sister Anne had compiled. Lois said that we had the book! She brought it to me and what a godsend it was. I had started to put together a family history, but really didn’t know what I was doing. I sent the information from the family history that Anne had compiled to Betsy Datri in Oregon who was compiling a Risty Family History there. This information was very useful to Betsy Datri. She called me and asked me to send further information as I got it. We now are working together toward the same goal.
The Risty family must be very widespread because one evening I got a call from a lady who said she was an adopted child. She is trying to get information about her birth father who she believes to be a Risty. I referred her to Betsy Datri.
There has been another lucky break in this whole process. When I sent the Karl Risty letter, received by my mother, to Mick Ramey it was fortunate it went to Mick. He is the middle child of five. The other brothers and sister are not interested in genealogy and possibly would have ignored the whole thing.
Mick and his wife, Diane, visited our home last week. We have quite a number of old items that were saved by my mother. Mick was very interested in seeing them. I am readying some additional Risty memorabilia to send to Mick and to Betsy Datri.
Now to go back to my thoughts at the start of these articles. The names that were read at the Memorial Day program have a lot of history that goes with them, possibly not as much as in the Risty family, but there are some very interesting stories that are out there are waiting for someone to find them. I would encourage someone to start looking for them. It is a challenge and very interesting.
