Hi John, Looking at the makeup of this family I would say more likely the more appropriate term of foster children would apply. Although a nurse child strictly speaking was a child who was put out to be breast fed obviously in this case except possibly for the 35 year old niece it is not likely any of these women were producing milk, certainly not enough to feed 6. Quite often wealthier families who found an unmarried daughter embarrassingly in the family way would pay a poorer household to take on the care of the child permanently & this may well be the case in this instance. Best wishes, Sharon >I have come across a household of nine people in Cherry Lane, >Walton-on-the Hill, in the 1851 Census consisting of a woman head of >household aged 54, her sister aged 68, a niece aged 35, a lodger >aged 14, and six 'nurse children'. > >Can a list-member explain this domestic arrangement please? >