Hi! I'm currently trying to find a list of People, Locations, Events, and Other things from Luke and Acts that we could in theory look for in history. For example, in Acts 10 Luke mentions the Italian Cohort being stationed near Caesarea. In theory, we could be able to look up the Italian Cohort and see where it was at the time that this event took place. Are there any books, authors, or websites that I can use that essentially already do this?
What you are asking is actually an entire sub field within the academic study of religion. A good place to start is knowing what you are actually searching for. Academics use the term 'historicity' to refer to the historical validity or plausibility of an ancient text. In your case, you are interested in the 'historicity' of 'Luke-Acts'. Plugging that search term into Google gives you some quick starts on Wikipedia and the like, but you may also be interested in this paper written by Jonathan Burke. I don't know Burke's work and his Academia page indicates he is likely an interested grad student from another field rather than someone in religious studies; however, his paper does contain a number of useful citations on further reading.