The Cormier Family traces its roots back to the Brittany region of France, with the earliest mention in the Middle Ages. The name Cormier is actually derived from the Old French word, "come," which referred to the fruit of the sorb or service tree. It was given to someone who lived near such a tree or who sold its fruit at the market. Over time, the Cormier Family prospered and a descendant was raised to the peerage as Lord of Brittany in 1480.

For several centuries, however, the King of France had sought control over the rebellious, Brittany lords, many of whom were more loyal to England. The Battle of Saint Aubin du Cormier was the decisive conflict or “guerre folle” between rebellious feudal aristocrats and Charles, then the French king, who marshaled his knights to quell regional feudal independence once and for all and concentrate absolute power in Paris. The combined rebel forces in Brittany were decisively defeated, paving the way for the creation of a unified French state, existing to this day.

Throughout the 1700s, the Cormier Family branched out across the globe, with one faction working it's way through French Provincial Canada into Quebec and Ontario. On January 06, 1881 Harry Bullard Lee was born in Norwalk, Canada. He would relocate with his family to the United States and be drafted in 1917 into World War I fighting for the Americans. His marriage to Rinnie Mathewson had produced a son, Horace Mathison Lee in 1915. The first Lee born in America and Vin Lee's maternal grandfather. Horace Mathison Lee's father-in-law was the founder/owner of The Coolidge Inn and Bar built the year that the Volstead Act was overturned ending Prohibition in the United States.