How true are all your suppositions! One more is that we don't know WHO answered the questions at any given home. Could have been a teen-ager while the mother was feeding the baby and the father was out in the fields. One surprise I found was discovered only when I found my great-grandmother, Juliette, as a baby in 1880 Chicago. She was listed as step daughter, Julia Pozner, age 10 months, of Julius Pozner, age 22, and wife Catrine (Kathleen O'Sullivan) Pozner, age 21, in 14th Ward of Cook County, IL. A son, Joseph was 2. Because I have never found a marriage between Kathleen and Julius (Jules), but did meet in the 1930s and 1940s Juliette's brother' Joseph, who was listed simply as son, I have tried to prove both births. So far, I have had no luck. But it shows again what you always say "Look at the original." The Soundex shows Juliette as daughter (not step-daughter) but full census is definitely step-dau.) Alice McCabe in Georgia