Ancestor of the Day for 10 July: Mary’s 2nd great grandfather Knud Knudsen Lee, b 02 Jul 1795 in Løken, Slidre, Oppland, Norway and d 10 Jul 1869 in Spring Grove, Houston County, MN. He’s gotten far less press in the AotD series than his wife Berit Jonsdatter Lommen Lee (01 Mar 1816 – 11 Jul 1894), as he died before the family made the move to Grant County in 1870.
But he, along with his wife Berit, his son Ole Knudsen Alvstad from his first marriage, and their three oldest children, Jøren, Anne, and John Lee, emigrated to the US in April 1857, where the youngest son Ole K Lee was born in 1859. They left behind them the grave of his eldest son Knud Knudsen Alvstad, who died in 1859 age 18.
I found the record of his burial on 12 July 1869 in the Trinity Lutheran Church records on Ancestry.com, incorrectly listed as “Knud Knudsen Luallas Alfstad”. The transcriber, not being familiar with the family and perhaps not with either Norwegian farm naming conventions or the language, misinterpreted the actual entry of “Knud Knudsen Lee eller Alfstad” (Lee or Alfstad, also spelled Alvstad, depending on where he lived at the time). The record notes that he was from Vestre Slidre Prestegeld.
Interestingly, he doesn’t appear in the Findagrave.com index for Trinity Cemetery.