Identity area
Type of entity
Family
Authorized form of name
Harris (family)
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
1851-1933
History
Martha Douglas (1854-1933) and Dennis Reginald Harris (1851-1932) were married in 1878, lived in Victoria, and had seven children together.
Martha Harris (née Douglas) was born in Victoria, British Columbia in 1854 and was the youngest member of her family. Her father was James Douglas, the Governor of the Colony of Vancouver Island and her mother was Amelia Douglas.
When Martha was 18, she was sent to England for her education. Martha returned to Victoria in 1874, and in 1878 she married Dennis Harris shortly after her father’s death. Dennis Harris was a land surveyor with the Canadian Pacific Railway and later became an engineer and businessman in Victoria.
Both of Martha’s parents were mixed race – her father had been born in British Guyana to a mixed race mother and a Scottish father, and her mother was part Cree. Although her parents faced prejudice, her mother still taught Martha Cree legends and stories, as well as other First Nations stories from the west coast. After both of her parents had passed away, Martha Harris wrote and published adapted versions of the stories her mother had passed down.
Martha Harris was a member of societies such as the Island Arts and Crafts Society, the Lace Club of Victoria, and the Women’s Institute Weavers Guild. She and her husband had seven children together, and Dennis passed away in 1932 and Martha passed away in 1933.
Places
Legal status
Functions, occupations and activities
Mandates/sources of authority
Internal structures/genealogy
General context
Relationships area
Access points area
Subject access points
Place access points
Occupations
Control area
Authority record identifier
Institution identifier
Rules and/or conventions used
Status
Level of detail
Dates of creation, revision and deletion
DDUFFY 2012-03-19
Revised EFeduk, 2017-07-18
Language(s)
Script(s)
Sources
BC BookLook. Pacific BookWorld News Society, 21 Feb. 2014,