Huh? Since when are Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster cousins. Everything I've ever read about them has them as classmates in Cleveland.
As far as I remember, Joe Schuster was born and partially raised in Toronto. As a Canadian, I knew that, as he is claimed by Canada as one of the Canadian pioneers of the comic book industry. His family moved to Cleveland, and if I remember correctly, he ended up attending Siegel's school. But their having been schoolmates didn't preclude their also having been cousins, and knowing each other through family ties, beforehand. Jewish families are generally clannish, and often reside in family "complexes" (aggregations of adjacent homes or nearby in the same neighbourhood). We lived in one of those in Winnipeg, Canada, but had cross visitations with our other family aggregation in Chicago, until we finally moved there when I was a teenager. Schuster and Siegel could well have been cousins, who, being of similar ages, probably hung out together, whenever their extended family got together during summers and longer holiday work breaks in Toronto and Cleveland. And so, they were best friends in high school, after Schuster moved there.
I have read several times, over the years, that they were cousins. And I have also read many articles that stated that they were school friends, but where their being cousins wasn't mentioned. I guess the jury is still out on that, given that casual articles written by people 75+ years after the fact, quoting 4th or 5th generation copycat sources, can often get things wrong.
