A relative of my children sent me a sketch of a relative from a 1923 history of Chariton and Howard Counties in Missouri.
Most of what is in it is consistent with information obtained from other sources. That is fortunate as sometimes biographies in these mug books contain significant amounts fo fiction.
These county histories are typically considered secondary sources for most (if not all) of the information they contain and need to be fact-compared with other, hopefully more contemporary and primary sources. Just because a source is a secondary source does not mean it is wrong…just that a comparison is needed. Anything in these materials can be wrong, right, or somewhere in between.
What’s in these biographies was often provided by the family–which can be good or bad. Sometimes they may contain a statement not available anywhere else–in which case the researcher will have to decide how much credence to give to it.
One good analytical tool for these things is to put all the information into a chronology. Another is to map out all the places mentioned. And…one more is to think about what primary source may confirm each fact stated in the biography.
By the time you have done all that, you should have a long list of research tasks from which to choose.
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