CUTE or creepy? An Australian man has turned to YouTube for help tracking down an American family he's never met, but knows all about.

Why?

He wants an invite to their Thanksgiving dinner.

For the past three years, 28-year-old Sydney man James West has been receiving personal emails from the Tran family of Somewhere, USA.

Update! James is going to dinner!

Initially he thought the messages were spam and ignored them, until a few snaps of a family holiday piqued his interest.

It was then he realised that he had been mistaken for another James West the Trans were actually related to.

But instead of alerting the senders to their mistake, he kept reading.

"It was only this year that I kind of went 'this is weird, I really want to find out more about these people'," Mr West told news.com.au.

He began to follow the conversation as dozens of emails were sent between members of the family, with him copied in.

He also began to figure out the structure of the family.

The Sydneysider believes the real James West is married to one of the Trans and is probably wondering why he never gets invited to family functions.

Lately, the Trans have been organising their Thanksgiving dinner — and the Australian Mr West wants in.

Without revealing his true identity, he even replied to an email asking: "What should I bring?"

The answer came from Martha: Canned corn.

Mr West considered emailing the family privately to ask for a proper invite, but given the controversial nature of their connection, figured he could use some public support.

"What to do next. Do I get involved? Do I pretend I’m the real James West? Do I come clean?" he said.

"I decided to go a different option: If I went public, would they come to me?"

So Mr West, an associate producer for an SBS TV show, took his plea to the modern day court of appeal — YouTube.

In the first of two videos he posted, Mr West said he wanted to come clean and apologised to the Trans for "perving" on their discussions.

"It's also a plea to the Tran family to say: Can I come to Thanksgiving? I'd really love to," he said

"All I need to know is where you live, who you are, and who the real James West is so I can forward him all of these emails that I've been getting.

"I know this is really creepy, but it's something I really want to do. I've got a few days to get the cash together before heading to America."

Mr West told news.com.au he hoped the Tran family saw the public appeal and invited him to their holiday dinner.

He also admitted that he knew quite a lot more about the Trans than just their names and which dishes they were bringing.

"I’ve discovered actually that it’s bloody easy to find out about people when you have an email address and a few a connections," he said.

"It’s very easy to find out stuff about people on the internet."

The information Mr West has discovered includes where the family live, their phone numbers and where they went to school.

But isn't that stalking? The kind of behaviour that would scare most people?

Absolutely, says Mr West.

"It's exactly like stalking, but this is where I’m going to depend on the Tran family to be kind and generous to me," he told news.com.au.

"I haven't done anything wrong. All I've done is join the dots.

"From what I know about them and their emails, they seem pretty cool and modern so I hope they react well.

"I think most of them are from Florida and you know, Florida's a sunny place."

Mr West said he had given himself until the end of today to get a result from the YouTube plea. If he doesn't get a reply from the Trans, he said he would invite himself.

To get there in time for the meal, Mr West needs to leave Sydney tomorrow afternoon. And he really wants to make it.

"They love Thanksgiving! They’re well into all the classic American dishes like baked-brie appetiser and broccoli cheese casseroles," he said.

"I’m hankering for a proper traditional Thanksgiving meal."

And he promises to bring the canned corn.

Watch the video here: