The ABC Rules of a Good Detective

In Karen White's novel, The House on Prytania Street, her character, Uncle Bernie, says he's

sticking to the ABC rules of a good detective....  Assume nothing; believe nothing; challenge and check everything.

I believe those are good rules for genealogists and family historians, too, don't you?  I think both groups have a lot in common when it comes to finding answers.  We don't assume that every statement in a census is accurate, that the story in the newspaper is exactly true, and we search for more evidence, additional documents, other sources to help us find the truth, or something as close to the truth as is possible, decades and centuries after the events.

I've begun researching Robert Nelson and his wife Jane (whose maiden name may be/is probably Watson).  They are my third great-grandparents on my mother's side of the family.  (Audrey Meinzen —> Emma Bickerstaff —> Edward Jesse Bickerstaff —> Emma Nelson —> Robert & Jane (Watson?) Nelson

Another researcher of this line shared the results of her research with me years ago.  Now I want to confirm her research and see the documents myself.  As I begin scouting around I see conflicts between her results and attached documents on FamilySearch Family Tree, as well as conflicts among the dozen or more attached documents in FamilyTree.  I have lots of questions.  For example,

• Is Robert Nelson's wife's name Jane Watson, as the earlier researcher suggests, or is it Jane Smith Thompson, as shown on FamilySearch FamilyTree?
• Was Robert born in Essex County, Durham County, or Northumberland County, England?   
• And where did someone find Robert's middle initial of W (as included in FamilyTree)?  I see no attached documents or evidence to suggest that's accurate, though the death certificate of one of his sons included the W.  Only "Nelson" as a last name was listed for the informant.
• In religion, was Robert Nelson a Non-Conformist or did he belong to the Church of England?  There are documents from both churches attached in FamilyTree.  (I'm sure they're not for the same person.)
  
• Where were Robert Nelson and his family in 1860?  They appear in the 1840, 1850, and 1870 census records in Jefferson County, Ohio, but are nowhere to be found (yet) in the 1860 census.  
• Robert Nelson was a coal miner (or "coal digger" as reported on the 1870 U.S. census).  Why did he and his wife and youngest daughter move over 500 miles, from Jefferson County, Ohio, to Montgomery County, Illinois, sometime after the 1870 census when he was already 70 years old?

There are so many contradictions and uncertainties.  I believe sorting this out is a challenge worthy of a highly experienced family historian, which I am not.  But I'm going to take it on and see what I can come up with.  You can be sure I'll be using the ABC Rules of a Good Detective!

—Nancy.

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