This is just a handful of the names of people with a connection to the Hunter region who have vanished - in some cases decades ago - leaving families wondering about the fate of some of their most cherished loved ones.

Sunday marks the beginning of National Missing Persons Week, a time police particularly ask communities to consider whether there is a way they can help with any of the hundreds of outstanding cases of people who are unaccounted for across Australia.

As part of the annual awareness campaign, Newcastle has been selected as one of four locations in NSW where a pop-up stall will be set up to collect DNA from the biological relatives of missing people in an effort to continue to build a database on the State Crime Command's Missing Persons Registry.

The DNA collection is part of an initiative launched last year to help make it easier for police to connect a name with unidentified items and remains, when they are discovered.

The collection stall will be set up in the banquet room at Newcastle City Hall on Tuesday.

DNA collection will also take place in Surry Hills, Dapto and Penrith next week.

According to the Australian Federal Police Missing Persons Register, there are more than two dozen people listed as missing across the Hunter and Central Coast regions.

To be classified as a long-term missing person, an individual has to be unaccounted for for at least three months.

More than 38,000 missing person reports are made to police each year.

There are about 2500 people on the long-term missing persons register nationwide.

This year's National Missing Persons Week runs until August 6.

Anyone with information that could help in the search for a missing person can contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or via the online reporting portal, where information can be passed on to investigators anonymously.

- This story originally appeared on the Newcastle Herald

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