I have a grandmother and great grandmother one on each side of my family who vanish into thin air, spent hours in time and money, not a trace. My best theory is that they hooked up with a.n other, no divorce so no re-marriage, simply changed their names and their lives.
As an aside, I caught the tail end of a tv programme today. The burials offficer of some London Borough was attending the funeral of an elderly lady they called Susan Strand. She had been found homeless and wandering in the Strand.
She had complete memory loss, did not know who she was or where she had come from. She was put into a care home, chose her own christian name, Susan, because it was a name she liked and given the surname Strand as that is where she was found.
That poor lady could have been someones mother; probably a sister, cousin or aunt and someone somewhere might like us be looking for her...
Suey