An 89-year-old man from Brisbane who is looking for his long-lost family in Malta has narrowed his search to two women from Qormi.

If he manages to track down these two cousins, they would be the first paternal relatives that Basil Povis, currently in Malta, meets after a long search with several dead ends.

According to documents at Qormi’s St George’s parish office, these two women are Carmela and Emmanuela, born to Carmelo Pace and Georgia Bons.

Emmanuela eventually married Giorgio Mallia in Msida in 1957.

For Mr Povis, the search has been a long one and took a couple of curious twists along the way.

READ: Basil's search keeps getting more and more curious

Born in England and orphaned as a child, Mr Povis was the only son of George and Mabel-Blanche née Matthews.

He knew that his father, whom everybody called George Povis, was originally from Malta.

The family name Pons was sometimes even mistakenly written as Bons and one time as Borg

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

And in a surprising twist following an appeal for any surviving relatives in the Times of Malta last summer, it was discovered that the actual family name was Pons.

However, 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 as Borg.

While Basil, a father-of-eight, will carry on with the surname Povis and not change it to Pons, his daughter Rebecca might consider passing on the surname if she has any children.

Basil Povis is currently in Malta from Brisbane, accompanied by his daughter, Rebecca, and looking to trace his relatives from Qormi.

Leafing through baptismal certificates, including her grandfather’s, Rebecca explained that her great-aunt Georgia gave birth to at least two children, including Carmela and Emmanuela Pace, who were around her father’s age and could still be alive.

There could be other Pons survivors who moved from Qormi over the years, and the family is appealing for any leads.

Mr Povis flew over in March with his daughter, who has since become engaged to a reader who saw her picture in the Times of Malta when the family first approached the paper for help.

He will fly to the United Kingdom in September, while his daughter will remain here for some weeks. However, he can always fly back to Malta if there are any new leads.

Mr Povis has visited his father’s hometown of Qormi and describes the moment that he was shown the font in which his father was baptised in 1889 as a “magical” one.

Readers are asked to kindly write to  basil.povis@gmail.com with any information about Mr Povis’s family.