In 2004 Doris received a phone call from an old friend. He told Doris that he had found out via his 87 year old mother, that Doris' grandfather was Chinese.
It was this phone call that sent Doris on a journey of research and discovery.
"I was very excited about the news that my grandfather was Chinese," Doris said.
"She [her friend's 87 year old mother] was the last remaining link to my grandmother, my grandfather and my mother's story," Doris said adding, "Just two months later she passed away."
Doris said she had previously only known that her mother had lived in an orphanage. She knew little else about her family history.
"My mother was darker skinned and I had always thought she was of Metis descent," Doris said.
The result of the 'out of the blue' phone call and the years of Doris' subsequent research is a 206 page fictionalized biography called 'Common Threads.'
Doris said 'Common Threads' is based on her family history, but has also been interwoven with some fictionalized events to fill the gaps in her research.
"I changed the names in the book from the real names of my family members at the request of my cousins who wanted me to keep the story fictionalized," Doris said to Lakes District 亚洲天堂.
Common Threads tells the tale of Doris' grandmother, 'Nell Baines' who immigrated to Vancouver from England in 1911 when she was 20 years old.
"Nell's sister Madeline, had a fiancee who had obtained employment as assistant to the superintendent of Chinese Immigration in Vancouver and so they all immigrated to Canada together," said Doris.
Doris said her grandmother, Nell, met a man in Vancouver who had immigrated to Canada from Hoi Ping, China.
"At this time there were many immigrants from China coming to Vancouver. The government brought Chinese immigrants here to do all of the jobs that no one else wanted to do," Doris said.
The friendship between Doris's grandmother and the Chinese man developed into a romance, then a marriage and three children, one of which is Doris's mother.
"My grandmother eventually left the marriage because she was mistreated," said Doris.
"She then tried to go back to England but because of her biracial marriage and biracial children her mother in England refused to receive her back into the family," Doris added.
"I don't know where my grandmother and grandfather met, it could have through the connection with Chinese immigration, but it could also have been through the church," she said.
In 1918, Doris's grandmother contracted the Spanish Flu and almost died. She then had to put two of her daughters into an orphanage in Victoria and one was adopted out to a friend.
"It was easy to find information about my English grandmother, I was able to track down medical records, marriage certificates and birth certificates. It was more difficult to find out information about my grandfather because he was a Chinese immigrant. I did manage to find out that he died of the flu in 1918 in Toronto," Doris said.
She went on to say that she spent a lot of time researching Chinese history as well as sifting through old documents and photos. She also had the help of a Victoria based genealogist to confirm the information she received about her Chinese heritage as her mother had passed away in 1985.
Doris, a mother of four and a grandmother of five has also published articles on mental health, travel and local history as well as several self published short books of poetry.
Her first published book, 'The Ghosts Behind Him' is about her son's battle with schizophrenia.
Doris Ray will be at the 亚洲天堂 Lake Public Library to present 'Common Threads' on Feb. 19 at 2 p.m.
