A search for family in Malta that started last year has turned a full circle, with an 89-year-old Brisbane man finally tracking down his relatives.

For Basil John Povis, born in England, the search has been an intriguing one, with clues first pointing at the possibility that his surname was actually Paris and, later, Pons.

With the help of several people, including the St George’s parish office in Qormi, Times of Malta readers and social media users, Mr Povis has finally met two of his cousins in Dingli.

Evone Scicluna and Joe Mallia, two of seven siblings, are the first paternal relatives Mr Povis has ever met.

The meeting, which took place earlier week before Mr Povis returns to the UK was “terrific” as it followed what he thought was another dead-end.

Orphaned as a child, Mr Povis was the only son of George and Mabel-Blanche née Matthews. He knew that his father, who everybody called George Povis, was originally from Malta and had died from war wound complications in England in 1934.

It was only last year that he discovered that his father was actually called Giuseppe Paris, after Reed’s School, in Surrey, provided records of his mother’s application to enrol him at the London Orphan School.

Then, in a surprising twist following an appeal in the Times of Malta for any surviving relatives to come forward, it was discovered that the family name was Pons. In his research, James Agius, a volunteer at the St George’s parish office, found that the family name was sometimes even mistakenly written as Bons and one time even as Borg.

Rebecca Povis is in Malta with her father. Photo: Jonathan Borg

Mr Povis arrived in Malta in March with his daughter Rebecca to narrow down the search.

The parish’s records showed that his paternal grandparents had 10 children. One of them, his aunt Georgia, had given birth to at least two children who were around her father’s age. Sadly, following another appeal in Times of Malta about the two women – Carmela and Emmanuela of Qormi – Mr Povis and his daughter were told they had died.

Mr Povis, a father of eight, thought he had reached a dead end. But the family did not give up. They received a lot of e-mails and social media messages and got a break when his wife, Linda, posted the latest appeal article that appeared on Times of Malta and some photos on a Facebook group called ‘Searching for lost friends and family Malta’.

Father and daughter finally met Ms Scicluna and Mr Mallia, children of Emmanuela, whose last residence had been Msida.

The meeting was anything but a dead end because they learnt that Mr Povis has several more relatives in Melbourne, ending his fears that he would never meet anyone from the family side of his father.

sarah.carabott@timesofmalta.com