If your genealogy "problem" is during a period when railroads were in operation, do you know where the nearest train station was for your ancestor? Do you know nearby stops along the way? People could hop a train to elope, look for work, or simply leave home and never come back.
Just the timing of when a railroad became available became important to a family history recently. I had to determined that the bridge over the Wabash River for the O&MRR - Ohio & Mississippi Railroad - and the railroad itself had been completed in time for my ancestors to make a loan on one day (28 Jan 1856) under the (alias) surname they would be forever known by at Vincennes, Indiana, and then be in St Louis, Missouri, two days later (30 Jan 1856) to be married under his surname of birth in the Cathedral there. It turned out the O&MRR and bridge had been completed by 20 June 1855 and dedicated when a groups from St Louis and elsewhere came to Vincennes on the 4th of July 1855. Without the railroad their trip across Illinios and crossing the Mississippi River would have been nearly impossible. The availability of the O&MRR may also have been early enough for these same ancestors to take the train from St Louis to Vincennes when they first came to America - that is if they came through St Louis and up the Mississippi, which has yet to be determined.
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