British man searching for long-lost cousin who was born in Kawarthas

Christian Taul (or Davey) was born in 1948 and spent his early life in Omemee or Lindsay

Mike Davey has a 1949 Canadian dollar. It was a gift from his Aunt Pat, who gave a matching one to her son, Christian.

Davey, 74, is now looking to reunite those matching coins, as well as family ties long ago lost.

“It would mean quite a bit if I were able to find what happened with my ‘Canadian family,’” writes Davey from his United Kingdom home, noting that both his parents and sister have already died.

“I have a son and daughter, but since neither have, or will have, children. I am effectively the last of my father’s line.”

Davey’s Aunt Pat, born Mary Patricia Davey, was born in Surrey, England in about 1914 and immigrated to Canada after the Second World War and settled in Omemee or Lindsay along with her mother Mary A. Davey.

Pat married John Taul, a Denmark native who served in the Canadian Army for six years. The pair had son Christian in 1948.

Davey does not know if his cousin went by the surname Davey or Taul. Davey’s father, John Cornwall Davey, made several trips to Canada to visit his sister and mother, even making plans to bring his own family, including wife Eileen Clara Davey, daughter Annette Davey, and of course young Michael John Davey, to live in Canada.

If life hadn’t got in the way, the cousins may have grown up close to each other in the Kawarthas. But a year after chats started about Davey’s family immigrating to Canada to join his father’s family, everything changed.

On Oct. 10, 1951, Mary Patricia Davey/Taul, Aunt Pat, died in isolation in Toronto after contracting polio. She was 37 and the second person to die of the disease from Victoria County at the time, as was reported on the front page of the Lindsay Daily Post the next day. She was buried at St. Mary’s Cemetery in Lindsay under the name Patricia Mary Davey.

“The death of my aunt in 1951 changed things and the return of my father’s mother to the U.K. in 1951-52 meant there were no remaining members of the family in Canada, and my parents decided not to emigrate,” said Davey.

After that, his family lost touch with his uncle John and three-yearold cousin Christian and have no idea if they stayed in Ontario or perhaps travelled to John’s home of Denmark.

Davey made an attempt to find his long lost cousin and uncle in 2011 after his father’s death when his mother, then in her 90s, was reflecting on family and reminded him of the lost connections on his father’s side. Davey did some internet research and contacted the now defunct Lindsay Daily Post and Lindsay Public Library but had no luck .

Skip to two weeks ago when Davey’s British-born wife tracked family members of her own to the Toronto-area through an ancestry website, discovering a half-sister she never knew she had. Unfortunately that sister died in 2018, after trying to trace Davey’s wife for years.

The connection was finally made with a nephew and photos exchanged; however, the sisters were never to meet.

“This has reinforced in my mind that time moves on rapidly and it’s best not to leave things, especially as one gets older,” said Davey of his renew search.

“I appreciate this is very much a long shot as there is missing information, and a long time has passed. However, if there is any recollection or record in the area that would be wonderful.”

Anyone who has information can contact Mike Davey at sandmike48@gmail.com.