These hints are good whether you’re doing lineage papers or not.
Do the dates make sense? What were the parent’s ages when they married? What date was the child born? What age were the parents when the child was born? Are they old enough to have a child or are they too old?
Do the places make sense? If the parents were born, married and died in Maine and the child was born 10 states away, that’s a problem.
Is there more than one person in the area who has the same name? I chose to do a different ancestor to go in on because of multiple men with the same name and I didn’t have double proofs on my first choice. Two decades later there is more info readily available and I now have the skills to work around the brick walls.
Does the published family history book have good citations? Verify what sources were used and check them yourself.