Why David has only one known second cousin

Second cousins are people whose grandparents were siblings.

Let's start on my mother's side.  I never knew my mother's parents.  They had both died before I was born and I have no idea if either of them had brothers or sisters.  It stands to reason that there probably were siblings, but I do not know of their existence and I just don't know if I have any second cousins on that side of the family.  Since those families were back in Great Britain, there was never any contact.  I have often joked that since my mother's mother's maiden name was Presley, I'm related to Elvis, but I seriously doubt this is true.

In fact, I have never met any of my first cousins on this side of the family.  My mother had four brothers.  Although one died in infancy and a second died as a young soldier in the war, the other two came to the US before my mom did.  I never met either of them.  To the best of my knowledge, one had a son and the other had a son and daughter, so there are at least three second cousins out there somewhere.  I have never met them.

On the Schryver side, Grandpa Schryver had four brothers but three of them passed away long before I came along.  The fourth died when I was about a year and a half old.  To the best of my knowledge, only one of these brothers had children.  I never met any of these great uncles or any of their offspring, if there are any.  Needless to say, I have no idea if anyone exists in the next generation.

Actually, my closest Schryver relative is another David ... David Roy, a second cousin, once removed.  He lives not far from us in Jefferson County.  David Roy's grandfather and David J's great-grandfather were brothers.  He has a brother and a sister, but they live out west and I have never met them.

Grandma Schryver was a Knutty.  Her only sibling, a brother Fred, had two children, a son John Leslie and a daughter Lucy.  Lucy never had any children.  John Leslie, or Les as we knew him, was Ruth's late husband.  They had two daughters.  Sally had a sister, Helen Lois, who died at the age of 12.  That leaves Sally as the only second cousin that I know.

After being a member of Marcia's family for over 30 years, I have often expressed surprise that families don't keep in touch.  However, I now find that it is true in my own family.  I guess our family has two excuses.  In my mother's case, she and her brothers immigrated and in the old days you just couldn't keep in touch like you can today.  In my father's case, I am his only offspring and neither his brother or sister had children.  It just wasn't a big family.

Marcia's family is a different story.  She has three first cousins on her father's side and eight on her mother's side.  As we get older and people get involved in their own lives, we tend to grow apart.  Although not as close physically to them as we used to be, we are still close, emotionally to most of them.  As for second cousins, we are trying to figure that one out!