I read many anecdotal accounts and do background research to figure out which ones are likely authentic and which ones aren't. If you can successfully figure out a few that actually happened, you can build on that and eventually put together the pieces of the puzzle. The downside to using anecdotal evidence is that you can't really prove what you've learned from it because interpretations of it are all subjective. They've been the foundation of my research though, and it's helped me answer a lot of the questions that I've had.