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Quote from: Intevel on Friday 09 March 18 18:27 GMT (UK)

Yes he does want attention. He always says ''Guess what folks...... Can you believe that me and him are actually related?'' But when he says ''well sort of'' that is when I feel he is putting me down.

Give us a clue! - for heaven's sake - GROW UP - how old are you?  I'm assuming you are an adult! 

Hi and welcome to the forum Intevel,

You have a cousin that's also a buddy? That sounds lovely! As jim1 says, don't get too hung up on a clumsy phrase and risk spoiling a new friendship.
Perhaps you could do a drawing of your family tree and how you are connected for your cousin, then you can laugh over the 'sort-of' thing together.

I once went to a wedding where a branch of the groom's family showed up unexpectedly (a family member had two relationships and two sets of children, not all of whom knew about each other). This could have been awkward, but the groom had the wit to draw a little family tree diagram with names, pinned it to the dining room door next to the eating-seating plan, and it actually worked (he also wrote something like 'meet our lovely family here' or something like that, so people knew to stay happy and not get worried/grumpy/offended etc). Instead of hovering round being unsure, people were going up to their 'new' relatives and introducing themselves quite happily. A picture paints a thousand words! It's actually true 

Hope you have many more happy get togethers with your cousin
  Barbara

My interest and involvement in family history goes back to my childhood. 

It has never involved me deliberately  searching for LIVING  strangers --- if in my research I came across  any  fellow family history buff who was also researhing same DECEASED person as me then I would share research.

 I would not expect to become involved in their domestic or business lives.

 So when sharing info ...well err ...it NEVER involved providing info about my LIVING relatives nor learning about their LIVING family.  To me, it is not famlly history to choose to seek out living people and encroach on their lives.

JM