Do you have people who just seem to have disappeared? Try contacting the local library, historical society, or genealogical group in the town or county where they were last found. They may have unique resources that can help you.
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.