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. They haven't spoken Czech in 50-60 years now, and couldn't remember any of it as far back as I can remember. Well, they do remember the occasional off-color poem or that sort of thing. And in the right setting, any of them might automatically respond to something said in the old language, too. One time when I was a kid & we were visiting my dad's family, his mother spoke a line of Czech to him rather automatically. Equally automatically, he obediently followed her orders without realizing which language she had spoken. The rest of us just stupidly stared at him, wondering why he was doing what he was doing. He frowned at us and growled, "So why are you just standing there...you heard what your grandmother said!" He honestly had no idea that he had responded to his mother's Czech command, and none of the rest of us had any idea what she had said! Not to babble on here, suffice it to say that we shouldn't assume that our elders never knew the language if they don't remember any of it later. It may be there, lurking in their subconscious, but it might not be accessible to them after many years of not using it. Cheri http://www.nidlink.com/~cdohnal =============================== Elaine T. Maddox wrote: > None of the children recalled anything but a few nouns > > from the language spoken by their parents.