Relations & Relationships

I got a new friend request on myspace this morning, from one of my cousins that I've never really kept in touch with. Her dad (my uncle John) passed away on Monday.
First, this is sad of course. I know he was a good man, and he looked a lot like my dad. Second, it's strange, in a few different ways. This past weekend I was thinking about him, and considering writing a letter to him to see if he'd be willing to tell me more about my dad and their family to help my attempts at geneaology. But now that he's gone, I don't think there's anyone that would really know much about their parents & their story. On top of that, when I read John's obituary I learned that he had a few more children than I knew about, and a total of 20 grandchildren! So now the whole "let's learn more about my extended family" idea just got a whole lot more daunting.
I admit a little bit of jealousy towards B's family, in that they are all so close. His cousins are good friends of ours, and we keep in close contact with them. Granted, there aren't very many of them (B's mom has one brother, and his dad has one sister, so not a whole lot of branches on the family tree), but I still wish I had that with my own family.
My mom has 3 sisters, only one of whom I've actually met (and only once!). My dad had a brother and a sister, and we kept in touch with them when I was young and their mom was still alive, but we lost touch soon after she passed away. Of all of these aunts & uncles and all their kids, I only know a fraction of them. I may still try to get in contact with a lot more of them, just to see if I can at least develop a correspondence.