There was another famous Bolyai, Janos Bolyai, and, in fact, Farkas Bolyai was his father. The great Bolyai was born in Transylnavia, Austrian Empire, which is now belong to Romania. After some education at school, Farkas Bolyai came to Gottingen University, here he met Gauss, and they then became close friends for the rest of their lives.                         

Bolyai's main interests were in foundations of geometry, arithmetic, algebra and analysis.