Antonina Osmola immigrated to Turners Falls, Massachusetts from Mielec, Poland in 1905 and married John (Jan) Sojka in 1907.

After her death in 1974, Antonina’s family found other documents among her papers—certificates for advanced English for American Citizenship classes from the 1930s and a notebook she used for the naturalization test marked with a grade “A”. Neither of those efforts seemed required to keep her citizenship, but perhaps with her nine children being educated in English, she wanted to improve her skills. Or, once her children were all in school, might she have wanted a job that required better English skills? Or, with immigration and citizenship laws in constant flux, especially for married women, did she want to assure citizenship status independent of her husband? The answers to these questions remain a mystery.

On Loan from the Sojka Family