In 2011, while attending a Vintage Pop-Up Shop, I came across (and purchased) an old autograph book from the late 1800’s.
I decided to scan all the pages, and to transcribe each one. Below are all the pages and notes from Minnie E. Duryee’s autograph book – a collection of messages, drawings and poems that are over 130 years old.
// Edit: Thanks to Denise McCormack, who sent along a link to this family tree that seems to identify Minnie.
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What a wonderful find! I believe Minnie’s last name is DURYEA. Perhaps some relatives will see this.
Laura Klein Plunkett (January 24, 2012 at 8:04 am)It was a really great find, and I’m very happy to be able to scan and share this book. If I could find a full time job doing this sort of thing, I’d jump at the opportunity. Must be the latent librarian in me – I just want to archive and make this kind of stuff available to anyone and everyone.
A funny note about Minnine’s last name – if you look at the first page, her name is definitely Duryea. But a lot of the subsequent pages show the last name spelled as Duryee – this includes both Minnine’s signature as well as other family members’ signatures.
It’s been a while since I’ve flipped through the back, but the spelling was off enough times that it made me choose to stick with the Duryee version (despite the clear “a” on the first page). Maybe when I finally get done with the book I can look back, and see which one seems the correct spelling.
avoision (January 24, 2012 at 1:38 pm)HI
I was doing some family research and came across your blog entry on Minnie. I have a Mary Emma ( Minnie) Duryee in my family tree as well. I want to say these are the same women but my dates are different even though my Minnie was born in NY as well but in 1843. Maybe they are related somehow.
In any case its a great find!
Marion
MARION (June 22, 2014 at 7:39 pm)