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Did Tolkein somehow keep track of all this in his head, or did he draw family trees himself?

And are there any examples of mistakes in LOTR where he messes up the chronology or anything like that?

There's a wiki page about inconsistencies: https://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Possible_inconsistencies_in_...

Whenever that kind if thing happens, a wizard did it.

No need to bring magic in. Tolkien might have made a mistake in translating the original Quenya, or perhaps there were transcription errors among the Noldorin scribes. Other histories have these same problems.

An inconsistency Tolkien "solved" is most notably Glorfindel. The name was used twice in early drafts so he decided to merge those two persons even though they appears eras apart, and the first one had died. He did it by introducing the concept of reincarnation for the elves.

Kinda related, it looks like there are a few new(ish?) "world building tools" for fiction authors now. Would be cool if authors started using these and made the databases available together with the works.

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https://chronographer.net

https://www.campfirewriting.com/

https://www.notebook.ai/

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