The Box Project

1. The Box Project By Ethan Feldman Modern American History Ms. Edwards

2. The Box’s Documents • Out of all the documents in the Box, most of them were all very helpful, because each of them, when linked with each other, helped me piece together a chronological series of events in the life in times of the Falat family. Even though they were not always related to one another, each of them had a little tiny bit of information that helped me piece together the history of the Falat Family.

3. Examples of Documents • Like I said before, there were many documents in the box that were very helpful, here are some examples: • From certain paycheck documents I learned that Mary and Nicholas Malinowski both worked at the Plastic Wire & Cable Corp., in Jewett City, Conn. • The birth and death dates of all the family members, but in many cases there were more than one certificate or documentation of their birth or death, and each document stated different facts other than the birth or death of that specific person. Usually they would state who their parents were, talk about their sons or daughters if any, as well as their husband or wife, and also would talk about in many cases their brief life story, where/when they were born/died, when and where they moved to if they moved to America, and other little tidbits and facts about their life, and each different certificate or documentation of this stated different things.

4. Examples (continued) • All of the Jewett City Water Company checks. Originally, I didn’t think these would be that important because I thought they were just a bunch of random documents, but after reading through all of the documents in the box, they are actually extremely important. It shows the dates which John and Victoria Falat used the water services, from January 1st 1946, until December 31st 1953. These dates by themselves don’t mean much, but when you take into account other documents, and link them together, their importance is striking. For one, John Falat died on July 22 1952, yet Victoria still used the water services after his death and the checks and envelopes still said the name John Falat on them, even though he was deceased. Also, there is a document showing that John Falat became a full fledged American citizen in 1938, very close to the time when they started paying for the water service. Also, there is another document showing that they got a deed from the Ashland Corporation in 1935, and another document shows auctions for houses from the same corporation in the same year. Which means they are obviously using the water service for their house.

5. Examples (continued) • The certificates of labor for John Falat show that he has been working in America since at least 1917 as a factory worker, but didn’t get his actual American citizenship until 1938. This is one of the only examples that shows that he lived in America prior to his citizenship, because if it weren’t for these documents, plus a few others, I would have thought he came over to America in 1938, which is clearly not the case, and just plain untrue. • Another document that is extremely important is one of John Falats death documents, which shows both his birth and death, and linked with other documents helps glue together when he came over from Poland to America, when he got his citizenship, and reveals the maiden name of Victoria Falat, which is Zaklukiewiez.

6. Why I Listed Those Examples • I listed those examples to get into the main reason for my presentation. The presentation was supposed to be either about what document(s) was most helpful in writing your paper, or what was least helpful in writing your paper. I have decided to go with the latter of the two, because honestly, there are a lot of very important documents, and I thought that no document was more important than any other, because they all helped because all of them linked within each other to piece together the family history of the Falats. • But, out of all the documents in the box, I must say, the one(s) that helped me the least, to nothing at all, were the Polish letters/documents.

7. Why Did the Polish Letters/Documents Not Help? • The Polish letters/documents did not help my paper much, if any, at all. • First of all, because of the language barrier, they were basically useless to me. • Second of all, if it hadn’t been for Ms. Edwards’ list of letters, the ones that said dates and who them were from and who they were to, I wouldn’t have gotten anything of out them. • Third of all, what I did get out of them was minimal, and really didn’t help or not help my paper in any way, shape, or form.

8. What Did I Get Out of the Polish Letters/Documents? • Like I said before, what I got out of them was minimal, but I did get something out of them at least. What I did get out of them was minimal, and it was only because of Ms. Edwards’ list. I got out of her list a cool thing about immigration, about how when families immigrate over to America they change their last names. The example was that the Malinowski family used to be the Malinowska family before they moved over to America. It is a cool little tidbit about immigration and I can relate to it because my grandfather changed his last name when he immigrated to America from Europe, but didn’t really help me piece together the Falat family history at all. • Also I did see that the Falat family was a lot bigger than the other documents make it out to be, but it is such a small and insignificant piece of the puzzle that it really doesn’t matter at all. • Also I did learn about Stanislaw Kawa from Ms. Edwards’ list, but it really doesn’t matter because there are a few other documents about him that give me more information that the polish letters/documents do, so I really have no need, if any for it.

9. Conclusion • Even though the Polish letters/documents didn’t help me much, if any, at all, I still got a little bit of information from them, although the amount that I got out of them was far less than any of the other documents or letters in the box. They still did help me along with my paper, although their importance and what I got out of them was pretty insignificant. • I learned from doing this project a lot about being an actual historian, and that not every single document in a series is always very helpful, but in doing this has made me appreciate history more, because now I know the hard work and the time that goes into it, and that this is a true history, because most everyday folk don’t keep documents like these.

10. The End Thanks For Listening