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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!
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