Don't know if this will help or not, but I had been looking for my great grandfather for years. He had 2 sons with my great grandmother, then dropped off the face of the earth. I finally found him in the 1900 census, serving in the Spanish American War. He apparently left the Philippines and settled in San Francisco. There he "hooked up" with a lady, who he claimed he married a week before the great earthquake and fire. Of course there were no records available, because the had been burned in the great fire. He also claimed that he had never been married before. I highly doubt that he ever married the new wife. I sent away for his pension record and confirmed that it was him. My great grandmother remarried and never saw him again. A kind person in San Francisco took a picture of his tombstone for me, so that sort of closed the book on him. I've now learned that some strange things happened during that time period. Also, if a person is missing, find out if there was a war during their time of disappearance. You might just get lucky, following that route! Lorraine