first-there are still more records out there NOT online, not even on LDS film or fiche. those of us who have been doing this since before it became "big busines" find todays searches so much faster and easier- used to take lots of letters, phone calls and road trips and hours walking cemeterys and searching court houses and libraries-not even sure u were looking in the correct state-u may have to do some of this , as it looks like this family traveled a lot, probably following work, and when that happens, sometimes they are overlooked come census time, etc.
okay, i cant find his soc sec death online. do you have the original death cert and does it have a soc sec # and state it was issued ?
http://www.deathindexes.com/ssdi.htmlfor help in obtaining his number and app using his death cert.
this explains the difficulty in obtaining his marriage license when u dont know what county he was wed in - increased demand and budget cuts not allowing state wide searches-only county searches - of course, if u live in california - - maybe u can do some library research -
do you have his obit, and does it say anything helpful? if u dont have it, contact the genealogy library for phoenix ariz
http://www.azlibrary.gov/researchsee if they will look it up for you, and hope it says something helpful, tho it sounds like, richard, at least, didnt know who his grandmother was.
where did you get the andrea ayers name? and are u confident that it is correct?
good luck, and we will keep looking also. have you been able to track joseph sylvesters siblings on any census ? what weretheir names/