What does “research” mean?

My son and I were walking through the Head of Tennessee Baptist Church cemetery (located in Dillard, GA) yesterday when we walked by the burial spot of Benjamin F. Grist, who died in 1869. I tried to explain to Caleb how we’re related to the local Grist family and wound up thinking about a brick wall ancestor, Catherine (–?–) (Darnell) Grist.

I know very little about Catherine:

1. She was born about 1785.
2. She had one child (that we know of) named Harrison Darnell in 1815 in Wilkes Co., NC. (Harrison married Nicey Grist, possibly the daughter of Benjamin F. and Anna Cathcart Grist.)
3. From Wilkes County, she moved to Spartanburg Dist., SC, before settling in Pickens Dist., SC.
4. She married on 2 April 1834 in Pickens District, SC, to Benjamin Grist (1759-1836), a Revolutionay War soldier (and possibly the father of the previously named Benjamin F. Grist) by William Moten at the home of William D. Teague’s father.
5. She was probably the elderly white female who was enumerated in the 1840 Federal census in Pickens District in the household of Harrison Darnell.
6. She was enumerated in the 1850 Federal census of Rabun Co., GA.
7. She was a member of the Head of Tennessee Baptist Church, Dillard, GA.
8. She died in autumn of 1855 in Rabun County and was likely (possibly?) buried in the Head of Tennessee Baptist Church’s cemetery in one of the now-unmarked graves. (Source: Head of Tennessee Baptist Church Minutes, 1847-1873, p. 2, line 40; Georgia Archives, Morrow.)

I thought about posting a research query on a local genealogy Facebook page, to see if anyone had connected Catherine with her natal family, and immediately dismissed the idea. It’s not that there aren’t local researchers whose research I trust; there are. It’s that I’m looking for a specific type of research and analysis. Uncovering Catherine’s identity may involve both a deep dive into the records and untangling a mess of conflicting “research” posted by other descendants on, for example, Ancestry.