There are different ways to look at this problem and the most sensible way is...
Caveat emptorExcept you aren't (usually) buying of course. If you find sourced or unsourced secondary information take the hints they can give you, but don't take the content.
Find your stones (primary information) to turn; wills, medal records, hospital records, school records, BMD Certs, kirk sessions, newspapers, criminal records, union news letters, parish records, armed forces records, merchant navy records, poetry (yes one of my tree is in a poem
) and many many more.
For example with unsourced finds. I have found numerous websites/posts/blogs that link to my family with info I could find nowhere. But deeper lateral searching finally validated what they had, sometimes MI, sometimes newspapers - sometimes I also disproved their assumptions.
The right way is to cite sources.
But if you don't it isn't punishable by hanging or even time in the stocks.
It is the combination of written evidence that gives you faith that you have a representation of the "true" history of your family. The
truth being what is written, so really the fun is in finding your own source.
Pam
Cheers,
Pam
