Mistakes happen, and sometimes those mistakes can have quite an effect on our family history research. The following teaser is from an article in the January 15, 2011 edition of M2M.tmcnet.com.
Jan 15, 2011 (The Leader-Telegram – McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) – Steven Thompson knows when his great-great- grandfather migrated from Norway to America, settled down just north of Madison and died fighting for his adoptive country.
And, as of this month, he can rest assured knowing historians from now on will know exactly what Knud Iversen looked like. A careful eye and years’ worth of sleuth work by Thompson, who lives just east of Altoona, helped fix a mistake in Wisconsin Historical Society photo records of his family member from the Civil War.
An 1862 portrait of Iversen shows a stern-faced, squinting 39-year-old in a Civil War uniform and hoisting a long rifle. But for decades, the photo was mislabeled as being that of Knut Larson, another Norway native who served in Iversen’s infantry regiment during the Civil War. Both men died during the conflict.
