Hi Cheri, I enjoyed your note, and should have mentioned it, I know that the parents refused to speak their language in front of the children, speaking only English, to force total Americanization. The children frequently commented about it in later years, especially as people became interested in searching for their roots. I think many of the nine children regretted the loss of the language and information about their parents' homeland. To make it more difficult, the Census seems to indicate the neighborhood may have been primarily Swedish in character, and the midwife certificates we have managed to locate, indicate the midwifes were German. I am trying to trace the Roman Catholic Church and believe it may have served the German community in Minneapolis. But so far as I know, I am dealing with Bohemian names -- Slepicka and Hruska. Elaine Cheri Dohnal wrote: > I won't even try to give a guess at what the census taker intended, but > I wanted to tell you that you are making a big assumption about the > children's language, which may not be at all accurate. It may seem > obvious that the kids always spoke English, since they can't remember > hardly any of the other language, but you might be surprised at the > reality of how easy it is to "lose" foreign language skills if they are > not reinforced for many years. > > All 8 children in my father's family grew up speaking Czech because that > was the only language spoken at home. My father & his twin brother were > the youngest, and they failed first grade because they were unable to > read or write in English, even after 6 older siblings had eeked their > way through school with minimal English skills. However, not one of the > eight kids remembers more than an occasional word in the Czech language > when asked to use it. <snip>