Google Books has tens of thousands of freely available 19th century books and journals. There are also searchable newspaper archives out there. The newspaper archives will probably not be free.
The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together. – William Shakespeare
Ann Cushman provides a marvelous resource of odds and ends and tidbits and stuff from the unusual to the amusing. In between, you might find a clue or a new source of information to aid your research.