Almost everything about Sylvia's life is confusing.
Her parents immigrated from Romania to United States in 1920, her older brother was born in New York in 1921, her parents became citizens in 1926, but Sylvia's birth is recorded by the American Consulate in Romania in 1928. She and her brother returned to the United States with their mother in 1929. Unusual, perhaps, but so far, so good.
In 1929, 1930, and 1940 her family lived at three different addresses, all in a very close area. Still unusual, but again not wrong looking.
Sylvia appears to have been married three times, and here's where the fun begins:
- She married Fred Mayer in 1949 (marriage record on profile). They were apparently divorced, but I can only say for sure that it was between 1949 and 1997 (when she married for what I think is the 3rd time). The only clues are:
- In a 1997 video history interview, Fred identifies her as his ex-wife (citation on Fred's profile)
- In 1959 she was using last name Mayer when she returned from travel, but lived in Florida while Fred is believed to have lived in either New York or West Virginia at that time
- In 1962 she returned from travel again, using the last name Bastyai, however her address was shown as c/o T Stieber in New York (Stieber was her maiden name, so this is probably a son of her brother Robert)
- Her brother's obituary in 1995 shows her last name as Bastyai
- The name Bastyai is sufficiently unique that the only candidate for this husband is Georg Elemer Bastyai, who died in 1995
- She married Marshall Kaufman in 1997 in Florida. Two marriage records have been found, showing the same certificate number, but showing different names for the bride - one shows Sylvia Pearl Stieber (her maiden name) and the other shows Sylvia Pearl Bastyai.
- Even stranger is the Florida voter record, that does not have a date but is part of a collection covering 1950 to 1993. This record shows her last name as Kaufman, although she did not marry Marshall Kaufman until 1997,
- Her death date/place is very much open to guess. There are several records for Sylvia Kaufman, both in New York and Florida, some of which can be ruled out by birth date. Two ancestry trees, both completely unsourced, show her death date as 2008, for which the only record I could find is at Find a Grave and indicates that she was buried in New York. I searched the cemetery and could not find any other family members buried there and - of course - Find a Grave is not exactly the most reliable source for anything.
The sources I used are from family search wherever possible, with more from ancestry. I also searched jewishgen thoroughly. Hopefully someone can find some more definitive information about Sylvia.
