IT was a time when things were left as they were, when there was no point stirring up the past.

Margaret Woodhall was seven when her brother, Joseph Carr, met his sweetheart in Canada while serving with the Royal Navy during the Second World War.

He returned to the North-East with his new wife, Catherine, and soon after she became pregnant.

But the couple split up shortly before the baby was born, and Catherine returned to Canada with her unborn child.

The Carr family had never met the child, who was called Joy, and when Joseph died in 1966 at the age of 46, they felt it was better to leave things in the past - until Joy came looking for her father.

Margaret, of Ferryhill, County Durham, said: "We always knew she was there and when she was little, mum used to send her parcels and clothes - we never forgot her.

"But in those days you didn't have the money to go to places like Canada, and they eventually lost touch."

Joy waited until the death of her mother two years ago before writing to County Hall, in Durham, trying to trace her father, known to the family as Joss.

She was put in contact with a Joseph Carr, from Spennymoor, County Durham, who was not her father, but who was touched by her story and tried to help her in her quest.

For months, Joseph, 59, tried to track down the whereabouts of Joy's father via the Internet and through local register offices, until he came across The Northern Echo's Tracer section, which reunites family members, old neighbours and Army pals.

The day the Tracer column appeared in the paper, it was spotted by regular Northern Echo reader Margaret, 62.

"I'm never usually stuck for words, but I was when I saw the article," she said.

"We used to say 'should we try and get in touch with her' but my older sister would say 'leave well alone', and we always said she would get in touch with us if she wanted to, which she did."

Although Joy, who lives in British Columbia, learnt her father had died, she also discovered she had a legion of aunties, uncles and cousins she had never met, who were delighted to hear from her.

In a tentative letter to her newly acquired aunt Margaret, Joy wrote: "Frankly, I didn't think anyone would know about me, let alone want to correspond with me.

"This is too good to be true."

Mr Carr, 59, who put the appeal in the Tracer column, said: "I'm chuffed to bits. For one reason or another it has taken two years, but at least it's got a happy ending.

"I can't thank The Northern Echo enough."

Now the family are planning to swap more letters and photographs, and hope to meet one day.

Margaret said: "We used to say if we won the pools we would go to Canada - but this is better than winning."