While researching your family history have you found well publicized stories that didn't make sense?

Yes I have run across that more than once. I think that many times they haven't really compared the facts and decided which ones actually fit. We also p information on to each other, so we won't have to reinvent the wheel, so you find it in many trees, which makes people think it is true, when it may have been started by only one person, who made a mistake. Sometimes it is difficult or impossible for you to go back and check the facts, so it is a good idea to note that in the tree you are compiling, which it sounds like you already know. I try to use what others have found as clues, not facts and check it out myself if possible. Of course, their sources are important in deciding what the facts really are. If the mistake in the line leads you back to a king or a knight, people also are reluctant to give up the idea. I had found the accepted facts about an ancestor in many trees on the Internet, but if it had been correct, he would have been born before his mother. He was also usually mixed up with another man of the same name, so his birth date was wrong in many trees. I did contact people who had posted this line and finally found one who checked what I had found. He agreed with me and evidently was able to convince some other researchers. I would be the first to admit that it is more fun to think you have your line traced way back than that you hit a brick wall, but I prefer reality in the end.