So I started looking at my family geneology a long time ago and I was very blessed that many of my family members kept good records and also that many of them had already done a lot of research both here and in Europe to get a lot of the details. This helped a lot when I got on Ancestry because there is a TON of good info on Ancestry but there is also some misinformation so it helped me to not get led down those paths. The “leaf” system on Ancestry is great and if you have no other information, you don’t have much choice but to follow it. It is BEST used with ACTUAL RECORDS. Like an actual marriage certificate showing Bobby did marry Suzy is better than just getting the info from someone else’s tree and this gets harder and harder the farther you go back and when you change countries but really TRY to get actual records, even if it costs you a few bucks.
Some examples are my father knew one of his uncles died from an ax to the head — WOW, gross. But a lot of people on Ancestry had him dying from a Brain disease. These all came from one tree so they accepted it as fact. Since I had the story from my Dad, it was pretty easy to get the newspaper clipping and the death certificate.
Another is my husband’s grandfather was shown on a lot of trees as having died in Oregon where they had moved to from his homestead in Mn and his Oregon residence was confirmed on the census. The reality when I started to look for records was that he actually died in Mn and when I pulled the death certificate, he died in Mn from complications from getting kicked by a horse. Why was he back in Mn? Who knows? His wife remained in Oregon so all I can think of is maybe he came for a visit or to help out at the farm but no documents as to why so who knows.
So what I am saying here is to happily march through your leaves and have fun. Then if you really want to confirm, you should easily be able to do that in a lot of cases with the documentation. That will make it more concrete and you will make more progress because you have built a sound structure so you can add the next layers of your family tree. I wish you great success in your family tree making, it can be a lot of fun!!