Are you actually thinking about the new information you locate? Or are you on auto-pilot as new details come across your path, responding to them without really thinking about them? Responding in a knee-jerk fashion to information you think “is the same” when it’s actually different could be the cause of your research problem.
If some piece of information given by your ancestor in a record does not make sense, consider the possibility that he lied. People lied for many reasons, including wanting to get married wanting to enlist in the service wanting to avoid the service trying to escape their past (parents, spouse, children, debts, etc.) An outright lie can be difficult to research around, but people did lie about their age, place of birth, name, marital status, etc.
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