Before You Grab That First One...

Don't just assume that the first "hit" is your person of interest when searching a record or a database--make certain other non-name details are consistent. There could be more than one person in the database or the general with the same name or with a very similar name. 

And, it's always possible that the wrong person's name was spelled correctly and the right person's name was spelled totally incorrect.

A recent post to Rootdig mentioned two Henry Markhams who served in the Civil War from Iowa. Different men--and only one was the person of interest.