I can find almost no information about my surname/ancestry (American, eyes)
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My mother and father divorced when I was 3 and I've had no contact with my father's side of the family. I've reached out to them but they do not want anything to do with me.
I have always been very curious about my Father's ancestry but our name seems to be very rare and none of the sites I've used have had any information.
All I know is that my father's name is Stephen Joseph Szilva and his father was also Stephen Szilva. My grandmother's name was Catherine Szilva.
What options do I have for tracking ancestry in this case?
If I just do a google search for my last name I get some Szilva's in Hungary.
However, years ago I did find a Szilva in Florida. He was in his 80's. He told me that our last name was originally Portugese Silva, but a few members of our family moved to Hungary temporarily and changed the spelling to Szilva so it would be pronounced correctly. Silva instead of Shilva.
My mother and father divorced when I was 3 and I've had no contact with my father's side of the family. I've reached out to them but they do not want anything to do with me.
I have always been very curious about my Father's ancestry but our name seems to be very rare and none of the sites I've used have had any information.
All I know is that my father's name is Stephen Joseph Szilva and his father was also Stephen Szilva. My grandmother's name was Catherine Szilva.
What options do I have for tracking ancestry in this case?
If I just do a google search for my last name I get some Szilva's in Hungary.
However, years ago I did find a Szilva in Florida. He was in his 80's. He told me that our last name was originally Portugese Silva, but a few members of our family moved to Hungary temporarily and changed the spelling to Szilva so it would be pronounced correctly. Silva instead of Shilva.
I was going to say Hungarian. Have you done DNA? If not you should
You've already tried to find a tree on Ancestry and on Family Search sites with matching names?
Just from a quick look at the obit, it seems probable that when the family immigrated, they would haven entered through NYC since that's where he was born. The National Archives will have the entries through Ellis Island but it probably would have been at least your gt grandparents who were the immigrants, judging by how well your grandfather seems to have done career-wise and from where they were living at the time of his death.
I don't know where you live but several of those towns are not too far from the town I live in and they are quite wealthy, especially West Hartford.
I am currently in Dallas and haven't ever visited that part of the U.S. A friend of mine says I should just go knock on my Father's door. It's never been hard to find the address.
I'll take a look at the National Archives. Thank you for that.
found that. Thats how I knew he'd died. I think I found one for my grandmother as well a year or so ago.
The obituary gives Stephen Sr's parents names as Laszlo and Elizabeth, that's something to go on. This looks like them in the 1925 NY State Census:
Name: Larzlo Szilva
Gender: Male
Color or Race: White
Age: 49
Birth Date: abt 1876
Birth Place: Hungaria
Residence Date: 1925
House Number: 515
Residence Place: New York, New York
Relationship: Head
Number of years in US: 24
Assembly District: 13
Line Number: 01
Page Number: 27
Household Members:
Name Age
Larzlo Szilva 49
Elizabeth Szilva 42
Larzlo Szilva 27
Andrew Szilva 15
Stephen Szilva 14
Julian Szilva 10
It looks like there's a lot of records of this family once in the US - it just depends on the availability of Hungarian records how easily you'll be able to trace back there.
In 1876, that town was in Austria-Hungary, so Slovakia didn't exist, so it makes sense his birth place was reported as Hungary.
The date is a little off, he can't have been baptized the date before he was born, but it's not unusual for birth dates to be slightly off like this. If this name is really as rare as you say, this is probably him.
I did not see Laszlo on ship's manifest for the Pennsylvania, but part of it was a copied disaster. You can go to Castle Gardens Stephen Morse site & look at it, ship arrived NY 22 March 1901.
Here is info from Laszlo's Declaration of Intent.
22 October 1934.
New York, NY--
Laszlo Szilva 58 cabin maker
763 East 156 Street, Bronx , NY
born 12 Feb 1876, Keraly,Helmecz, Hungary
Race: Magyar Nationality: Hungarian
5'6" 163lbs
White, dark complexion, gray eyes, black hair
Married about 1905 New York to Elizabeth- born 16 Sept 1882 Erdo, Beuye, Hungary
4 children born at above address NY-
Julius 26 Aug 1914
Stephen 2 Jul 1910
Louis 11 Jan 1908
Andrew 2 Jul 1909
1st Declaration of Intent #58462 filed 2 April 1917, NY
Last foreign residence: Keraly, Helmecz, Hungary
To US aboard the Pennsylvania. From Hamburg, Germany under passenger name Szilva, Laszlo.
....
Laszlo & Elizabeth are buried Linden Hill, United Methodist Cemetery, Ridgewood, Queens, NY.
(His name Laszlo sometimes has accent mark on a.)
...
In obit of son Louis 1997, mother named Elizabeth Kenyeziel....on death cert Kenyezkei.
On marriage certificate #6714 New York
14 March 1906
Kenyzley, Elizabeth to
Sylva, Lewis
(keep in mind that marriage records of this time period often had spelling errors)
....
Laszlo was Americanized as Louis.
I noticed Stephen had a different birth date on other documents. The birthdates listed on Dec.of Intent may need be researched further.
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